A Prototype Software Framework for Transferable Computational Health Economic Models and Its Early Application in Youth Mental Health.

We are developing an economic model to explore multiple topics in Australian youth mental health policy. To help make that model more readily transferable to other jurisdictions, we developed a software framework for authoring modular computational health economic models (CHEMs) (the software files that implement health economic models). We specified framework user requirements for: a simple programming syntax; a template CHEM module; tools for authoring new CHEM modules; search tools for finding existing CHEM modules; tools for supplying CHEM modules with data; reproducible analysis and reporting tools; and tools to help maintain a CHEM project website.

Accelerating youth mental health services research.

Objective: We describe a research program to advance youth mental health service research in Australia, addressing two core knowledge gaps: the lack of available routine outcome measures and lack of understanding of how to assess and monitor complexity and heterogeneity in illness presentation and trajectory.

Conclusions: Our research identifies better routine outcome measures (ROM) that are: designed specifically for the developmental nuances of the 12-25-year age range; multidimensional; and meaningful to young people, their carers, and service providers. Alongside much-needed new measures of complexity and heterogeneity, these tools will inform service providers to better meet the needs of young people presenting with mental health problems.

Understanding the complexity, patterns, and correlates of alcohol and other substance use among young people seeking help for mental ill-health.

Purpose: Use of alcohol and other substances is a multifaceted issue impacting young people across multiple life domains. This paper aims to elucidate patterns of substance use and associated demographic and clinical factors among young people seeking treatment for their mental health.

Methods: Young people (12-25 years old) were recruited from five youth-specific primary mental health ("headspace") services in Australia.

Prevalence and Correlates of Tobacco Use in Young People Presenting to Australian Primary Mental Health Services.

Introduction: In Australian youth primary mental health settings it is unclear as to the rates and correlates of tobacco use at service entry.

Aims And Methods: We aimed to delineate the prevalence and correlates of recent tobacco use (eg, cigarettes, chewing tobacco, cigars, etc) in the past 3 months in young people at their first presentation to primary mental health services as a function of age. Cross-sectional self-report measures were collected using a tablet device from young people presenting to one of five Australian primary mental health (headspace) services.

Not in education, employment and training status in the early stages of bipolar I disorder with psychotic features.

Objective: There is a lack of existing research regarding young people with bipolar I disorder (BD-I) and psychotic features, who are not in education, employment, and training (NEET). Thus, the aims of the study were to: (a) establish rates of NEET at service entry to a specialist early intervention service; (b) delineate premorbid and current variables associated with NEET status at service entry and (c) examine correlates of NEET status at discharge.

Method: Medical file audit methodology was utilized to collect information on 118 patients with first episode psychotic mania treated at the Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre (EPPIC), Melbourne, Australia.

The Neuropsychological Symptoms Self-Report: psychometric properties in an adolescent and young adult mental health cohort.

Background: Subjective cognitive symptoms are common in young people receiving mental health treatment and are associated with poorer outcomes. The aim of this study was to determine the psychometric properties of the Neuropsychological Symptoms Self-Report (NSSR), an eight-item measure recently developed to provide a snapshot of young people's perceived change in cognitive functioning in relation to mental health treatment.

Method: The sample included 633 youth aged 12-25 years (M  = 18.

Subjective cognitive functioning in relation to changes in levels of depression and anxiety in youth over 3 months of treatment.

Background: Subjective cognitive difficulties are common in mental illness and have a negative impact on role functioning. Little is understood about subjective cognition and the longitudinal relationship with depression and anxiety symptoms in young people.

Aims: To examine the relationship between changes in levels of depression and anxiety and changes in subjective cognitive functioning over 3 months in help-seeking youth.

Developing and testing the F-SIM, a measure of social inclusion for people with mental illness.

Social inclusion is an important contributor to good mental health and greater mental health outcomes for people with psychiatric disorders. A psychometrically-sound measure of social inclusion is required to facilitate progress in this area. The aim here was to report on preliminary findings from a novel, user-friendly measure of social inclusion that comprehensively assesses the construct.

What is social inclusion? A thematic analysis of professional opinion.

Objective: Social inclusion is increasingly recognized as an important contributor to positive mental health outcomes, particularly for people with mental illness. There is a lack of consensus regarding what it means to be socially included and what the key contributors to social inclusion may be. The aim of this investigation was to determine such key contributors, as identified by those with professional experience.

Social inclusion and its interrelationships with social cognition and social functioning in first-episode psychosis.

Aim: People with psychosis are at risk of social exclusion. Research is needed in this area due to the lack of direct measurement of social inclusion, which becomes salient in adolescence and is relevant to first-episode psychosis (FEP; the onset of which typically occurs during or shortly after adolescence). Social inclusion may be impacted by impaired social cognition and social functioning, which are related features observed in psychosis.

Men's perceived barriers to help seeking for depression: Longitudinal findings relative to symptom onset and duration.

Men's help seeking for depression continues to gain focussed research and clinical attention. In this study, 125 men ( M = 39.02 years) provided data on perceived barriers to mental health help seeking, and self-reported depression at baseline, and 15 weeks.

Australian Schizophrenia Care and Assessment Programme: real-world schizophrenia: outcomes.

Objective: It has been increasingly recognized that there is need to assess patient outcomes in schizophrenia across a broad range of dimensions. But few studies have attempted to do this in clinical populations and no systematic study has broadly assessed outcomes in schizophrenia in Australia using a longitudinal design. Thus, a real-world study, the Schizophrenia Care and Assessment Programme (SCAP), was structured to collect comprehensive information over time to inform policy debate and extend current knowledge about the course of schizophrenia in an Australian context.

Australian Schizophrenia Care and Assessment Programme: real-world schizophrenia: economics.

Objective: The treatment of patients with schizophrenia consumes a considerable proportion of health service budgets, yet there have been few attempts to prospectively analyse the costs associated with this condition. Amid the current debate about where to invest scarce treatment resources to achieve optimal outcomes, real-world studies, such as the Schizophrenia Care and Assessment Programme (SCAP) contrast with hypothetically based models and provide comprehensive and broad-ranging data.

Method: Direct health-care costs were prospectively studied in a cohort of 347 patients with schizophrenia in Dandenong, Australia over 3 years.