Mind Australia’s Youth Psychosocial Support Package (YPSP) supports young people (16-24) in the Perth metropolitan area.
Operating since 2023, the pilot program is making a significant difference to the lives of young participants by focusing on strengthening their social connection.
The program’s peer practitioners use their own lived experience of mental health challenges to connect with and inspire participants in their recovery.
Mind Peer Practitioner Lead Ashleigh Leventhal shared examples of positive change achieved by participants at the 2025 Child and Adolescent Mental Health Conference (CAMH), held at the Gold Coast in March.
Mind records outcome measures for participants across all its programs and services to measure and continuously improve the impact of services on those who access them.
In her outcomes reporting over the first six months of accessing the program, YPSP participant Susie (name changed) reported:
- her wellbeing improved from fair to good
- her life skills went from poor to good, and
- she had a 15% improvement in her sense of “feeling in control”.
“The YPSP experience has been the best from the others I have tried,” Susie said.
“YPSP has not just helped me but also from talking with my peer practitioners and building a genuine peer/client relationship and being able to hear their life story and struggles has definitely helped me in so many ways with my own. [Peers] have helped me with my communication skills and getting me out of my isolated shell.”
Youth outreach programs like this typically have positive impacts for the participant’s family members also.
“There is no organisation that we have experienced that even comes close to what YPSP has to offer, they include amazing supports on a longer-term basis,” Susie’s mum said.
Peer Practitioner Lead Ashleigh said she has witnessed many young people achieve significant change in their lives as a result of the program.
“If I had access to something like the YPSP program, I can’t even imagine how much this would’ve changed my life as a young person,” she said.
Mind’s peer workforce is built on the foundations of key documents including Mind’s Peer Work Framework, which guides the knowledge, value and practice principles that help peer programs like YPSP to deliver effective outcomes for people living with mental health challenges.
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