FOOD AND GENERAL SUPPORT SERVICES

Red Cross Cafe

The cafe is open to young people, aged under 25, who are homeless, at risk or disadvantaged in Brisbane.

The Night Cafe is open every Tuesday and Thursday night from 7pm until 9pm and Sunday afternoon from 3pm until 6pm.

With the support of Brisbane City Council, Bank of Queensland and Domino's Pizza, Night Cafe provides vulnerable young people free hot food, showers, toilets, and acces to information and advice.

Newly Arrived Migrants and Refugees

The Newly Arrived Youth Support Service (NAYSS) initiative provides culturally appropriate services ranging from early intervention to transition, for newly arrived young people aged 12 to 21 who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

NAYSS providers will help newly arrived young people who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness, to improve their level of engagement with family, work, education, training and the community by using a variety of strategies such as counselling, family mediation and practical support.

For more information on services in Queensland please click here.

HEALTH SERVICES

The Innovative Health Services for Homeless Youth (IHSHY) Program was introduced as a pilot program in 1991, in response to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's (1989) 'Our Homeless Children' (Burdekin) Report which found that homeless young people exhibit chronic health problems but are reluctant to seek treatment through mainstream services which they regard as judgemental and unsympathetic to their needs and life situations.The IHSHY Program is jointly funded between the Australian Government and the State and Territory Governments.

Program Objective:

The aim of the program is to improve the health outcomes of homeless and otherwise at-risk youth aged 12-24 years and their dependents through the provision of specialised health services and improved access to mainstream health services.

Click here for more information: Innovative Health Services for Homeless Youth (IHSHY) Program

Medicare

A young person can claim through medicare for psychiatric or psychological care.  This process is not a simple one and information is available on MBS Online.  Wherever possible we would advise that you have a support person to assist you through the process.

For information regarding how to access a psychiatrist click here.

For information regarding access to psychologist click here.

Headspace is Australia's National Youth Mental Health Foundation. The headspace mission is to deliver improvements in the mental health, social wellbeing and economic participation of young Australian’s aged 12-25. To this end, headspace aims to be the focal point for youth mental health issues across the country. This includes providing funding to improve services for young people who may be experiencing mental health and/or drug and alcohol issues and the latest information about these important health issues for young people.headspace is aiming to achieve this through the 30 funded headspace services located in each state and territory across Australia. These services provide an entry point for young people to access a broad range of services which are available in their local community. All of whom have a focus on providing a more integrated service responses.

For information on services in Queensland go to: http://www.headspace.org.au/default.aspx?page=33

Queensland Government 13 Health

Queensland Health now has a phone line 13 HEALTH (13 43 25 84) for all Queenslanders to help take the worry out of health concerns.

You can phone 24 hours a day 7 days a week for the cost of a local call.Calls from mobile phones may be charged at a higher rate than local call charges. Please check with your telephone service provider.

Qualified staff will give you advice on who to talk to and how quickly you should do it.

The advice is confidential, qualified and supportive. 13 HEALTH can ease your concerns.

13 HEALTH provides qualified health advice; it is not a diagnostic service and should not replace medical consultation. In an emergency always dial 000.

JOB/EMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE

Job Placement, Employment and Training (JPET)

The Job Placement, Employment and Training  (JPET) programme assists disadvantaged young people aged 15- 21 years, who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, to overcome personal and social barriers to get back on track. Some of these barriers may include drug and alcohol addiction, sexual abuse, violence issues, behavioural problems and low education attainment. JPET helps young people to stabilise their personal circumstances and then address difficult issues in the young persons’ lives so they can build their skills and abilities to re-engage with education, study or vocational training or make the transition to employment assistance or employment and participate socially in their community. To be eligible to participate in the JPET programme, a young person must: be aged between 15 and 21 years and fall within the JPET target group and not be in sustainable employment and be and Australian citizen, have permanent residency or hold a Temporary Protection Visa.

For more information on a service near you go to:

http://jobsearch.gov.au/public/providers/generic/MapLvl2.aspx?provider=JPET&regionkey=QLD&regionname=QLD

Young Workers Advisory Service

Young Workers Advisory Service (YWAS) is a state-wide safety-net Queensland government funded community organisation that provides information, advocacy, referrals and advice to young workers (under 25) in Queensland about employment/industrial relations concerns.

For more information click on the link below;

http://www.ywas.org/

EARLY INTERVENTION

Reconnect

The Reconnect program uses community-based early intervention services to bring about family reconciliation for young people who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness, and their families. Reconnect helps these young people improve their level of engagement with family, work, education, training and their local community.Reconnect breaks the cycle of homelessness, which can begin at an early age, by providing counselling, mediation and practical support to the whole family. Reconnect providers also 'buy in' services to target individual needs of clients, such as specialised mental health services.Reconnect service providers follow the seven good practice principles: accessibility of services client driven service delivery holistic approaches to service delivery working collaboratively culturally and contextually appropriate service delivery ongoing review and evaluation; and building sustainability.

For a service in your area click on the link below:

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~refsbp/othercon.html#nthbrisbane