Essay: The Youth Mental Illness in Australia - Challenges and opportunities of Community Service Sector

Introduction

Mental illness has become a health problem in modern society within Australia and it should be mentioned that the use of community services within Mental illness is managed. It has been seen that 14% of youth within Australia are affected by mental illness. It should be mentioned that the community service sector that has been engaged in managing mental illness within youth is managed by the Department of Social Services under the Australian governance and there are some NGO and social charity organizations. The aim of the essay is to provide in-depth knowledge about the community service sector engaged in the youth experiencing mental illness in Australia.

Description of      the     service        sector         you   have  chosen        and   identification          of two management      challenges   that   the     service sector        might         face

Mental illness is one of the biggest threats that are rapidly increasing day by day in the world including Australia. With the era of technology, it has been found that youths are the ones who are experiencing mental illness like depression, anxiety and mood swings. The reason for the mental illness for the youths in Australia has many reasons, like social cause, environmental factors, economic problems etc. The National Mental Health Commission is trying to prevent mental illness from the youth who are facing depression and anxiety. The commission was set up in the year 2012. It is believed that the National Mental Health Commission is the first mental health commission in Australia (Mendling et. al 2018). The aims of the commission were to understand the reason regarding the rising mental issues among the youth in Australia and inform the government about the condition so that the government can take steps regarding the country.

Management Challenges Faced By the Sector

There are challenges in each and every sector that is trying to operate for the better cause. The challenges are of various types and in order to overcome the challenges, the companies and the organizations use various methods. Below the two most important management challenges faced by the National Mental Health Commission of Australia are mentioned below:

a)      Lack of training

One of the most difficult challenges that the National Mental Health Commission of Australia might face is that the employees that are recruited in the sector may not be provided with adequate training to deal with the mental health cases. It might be said that the newly recruited staff may not be able to fight with the situation if the training is not provided properly. Mental issues are one of the crucial issues that are faced by the youth of Australia and it is very much essential for such a sector to deal with such a situation as these situations are very much delicate in nature. The National Mental Health Commission of Australia provides advice and various types of evidence to the government so that the government of the state can deal with the problem (Harvey et. al 2017). The sector not only gathers evidence about the patients but also tracks and monitors the different people who are already suffering from mental health issues. So in this scenario, it can be said that it is very much essential for the management team of the sector to provide sufficient and skill-based training to the employee so that they can properly deal with the delicate situation.

b)     Time Management-

Time management is another challenge that the management of the National mental Health Commission of Australia might face. In terms of time management, it can be said that the commission provides evidence and also advises the government of Australia about how to deal with the situation in which youths suffer mental illness and how to handle those situations. So in order to do that the sector conducts surveys and monitors the youth who are currently facing the mental illness problem. In this case, managing time on day to day, activities are very much for employees. So there are instances that the management might not be able to maintain time for gathering evidence on the right time, monitoring the youth on a daily basis etc.

Outline       two    different     leadership  styles and   demonstrate         why   each style    is          suited          to      addressing  the     two    management        challenges identified

Leadership styles can be defined as a guide or rather a procedure through which the leader of an organization guides the employees through many stages. For instance, the leader of the organization makes a proper plan for the organization so that it can reach its goal in a short period of time. The leader also guides the employees for their respected job position and also helps in solving the problem that is associated with the organization and the employees in the organization. In this case, it can be said that the leadership style is very much essential for the betterment of the National Mental Health Commission of Australia. In the below, two leadership styles are suggested for the National Mental Health Commission of Australia for the betterment of the sector and also for the employees working in it.

a)      Transformational Leadership Style-

The transformational leadership style is the style in which the leader of the organization changes the existing process of the organization for the betterment. Following this leadership style, it can be said that the National Mental Health Commission of Australia will be to bring new innovations and changes in the organization which will definitely for the betterment of the organization as well as it will help the organization to think about new ideas regarding the youth who suffer from mental illness in Australia (Nguyen, Mia, Winata & Chong, 2017). Using the transformational leadership the organization will be able to understand the problem behind the rise of mental illness in the youths in Australia as well as it will soon be able to come with new ideas about the solution to the problem and to avoid the problem as much in the future.

b)     Coaching Leadership Style-

Coaching leadership style is one of the styles in which the leader of the organization guides the employees of the company as being a mentor to the employees and staff of the company (Berg & Karlsen, 2016). In this case, the leaders of the National Mental Health Commission Australia are very much expertise in their field of work and which is why they will be able to provide proper guidance and training to the employees of the organization.

Both the leadership styles that are mentioned in the above are suitable to deal with the challenges that the management of the National Mental Health Commission of Australia might face. The transformational leadership style is very much effective for one of the management challenges that is mentioned in the above which is the time management issue. Using the transformational leadership style the organization will be able to teach the importance of completing the task on time and the leaders of the organization can also provide alternative options to complete the task within time. On the other hand, the Coaching Leadership Style is very much effective in dealing with the second management issue mentioned in the above which is lack of training. In coaching leadership style the leaders of the organization act as a coach so, therefore, they can provide proper training to the employees for dealing with the problems that are the mental illness of the youths in Australia.

An     analysis      of      two    partnerships        that   services       operating   in this sector could establish     to help        address       the     management        challenges identified

There will be a requirement of partnerships within the following community service sector of mental illness which would help in address and optimizing the management challenges that have been identified above:

Public-private partnerships:

The public and private partnership is an important partnership that will be required in the community service sector for youth mental illness. Under such partnership, the NGO and charity organization that are operating in this sector and are privately owned collaborate with governmental programs and policies in order to bring development and well being with this area of social service. Governmental programs such as A better life (ABLe), Career and support, Family Mental Health support services and Individual Placement, Mental Health Respite and Support Trial must be operated by private organizations that are operating in this sector. In this way, there can be a proper collaboration between the private organizations that want to provide high-quality support and the governmental services and policies that are aimed towards developing health and care support systems for the young one that are suffering from mental illness (McGorry & Mei, 2018). 

Government- health sector partnerships:

Healthcare sector is one of the major stakeholders that are associated with the mental illness community service sector that is operating to help youth in Australia. The healthcare sector needs to partner with governmental organizations that manage the Social service department within Australia in order to operate in a partnered way to tackle the above-stated management issues. Communication and allocation of information and resources which is one of the major issues faced in the community service sector is resolved in an evident manner. The partnership of healthcare organization and governmental organization will help in filling up the communication and resource gap which will be required to bring immense development in community service standards (Coles et al. 2016).  In this way, it can be said that the following partnership will bring development in community service for youth mental illness within the region.

The above two partnerships are very crucial in order to bring development in the community service sector for youth mental illness within Australia. A partnership like these will bring development within the region and will also address the crucial issues of management that have been identified in the section above.

Discuss       the     importance of      innovation in      the     context       of     the          community service        sector         you   have  selected

Innovation is one of the crucial factors which will bring development in community service operations for youth mental illness. In the era of technological disruption innovation within practices and community services has a huge development within standard services that are provided to the youth suffering from mental illness of different types. Innovation can be social, technological or environmental but it will bring development in the standard of service provided to the youth. Development of Innovation also addresses the majority of existing problems that hinders the growth of this community service sector. It should be mentioned that innovation in the community service sector not only brings development but also increases the potential of the workers and organization within the sector to counter existing challenges and issues. Innovation is often derived from a problem which is faced in the sector hence innovation mitigates and optimizes the majority of existing problems that community service workers are facing in the providing services to youth suffering from mental illness (Rickwood et al. 2019). It is important to understand that innovation is an incremental process and brings new elements and practices which must be adopted by organizations and community workers so as to use the innovation in an evident way. Hence training and development of workers as per the modern changes have a huge impact on the way innovation brings development changes within the sector. Innovation brings changes and as stated earlier changes are met by some resistance that must be optimized or mitigated in order to effectively implement the innovative change so that there developed within the sector. In the community service sector for youth mental illness in Australia, the requirement of innovation is very high and it will bring disruptive changes in the sector but will also standardize and develop the system of providing services and support to the youth suffering from mental illness in the region (Harvey et al. 2017).  Thus it can be said that innovation is the pedestal of growth and development within the stated community service sector that has been mentioned above with innovation there can be immense development seen in the sector which will be positive for the region’s social service.

Conclusion

Concluding in the light of above context it can be said that community service for youth suffering from mental illness must be developed and the management issues indeed above must be managed with the use of stated methods and leadership strategies. Innovation will positively impact this community service sector and will eventually develop community service operations.

 

References

Berg, M. E., & Karlsen, J. T. (2016). A study of coaching leadership style practice in projects. Management Research Review.

Coles, M. E., Ravid, A., Gibb, B., George-Denn, D., Bronstein, L. R., & McLeod, S. (2016). Adolescent mental health literacy: young people's knowledge of depression and social anxiety disorder. Journal of Adolescent Health, 58(1), 57-62.

Harvey, S. B., Deady, M., Wang, M. J., Mykletun, A., Butterworth, P., Christensen, H., & Mitchell, P. B. (2017). Is the prevalence of mental illness increasing in Australia? Evidence from national health surveys and administrative data, 2001–2014. Medical Journal of Australia, 206(11), 490-493.

Malla, A., Iyer, S., McGorry, P., Cannon, M., Coughlan, H., Singh, S., ... & Joober, R. (2016). From early intervention in psychosis to youth mental health reform: a review of the evolution and transformation of mental health services for young people. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 51(3), 319-326.

McGorry, P. D., & Mei, C. (2018). Early intervention in youth mental health: progress and future directions. Evidence-based mental health, 21(4), 182-184.

Mendling, J., Weber, I., Aalst, W. V. D., Brocke, J. V., Cabanillas, C., Daniel, F., ... & Gal, A. (2018). Blockchains for business process management challenges and opportunities. ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems (TMIS), 9(1), 1-16.

Nguyen, T. T., Mia, L., Winata, L., & Chong, V. K. (2017). Effect of transformational-leadership style and management control system on managerial performance. Journal of Business Research, 70, 202-213.

Rickwood, D., Paraskakis, M., Quin, D., Hobbs, N., Ryall, V., Trethowan, J., & McGorry, P. (2019). Australia's innovation in youth mental health care: the headspace centre model. Early intervention in psychiatry, 13(1), 159-166.