Youth Plus

What is Youth Plus?

The Youth Plus clinic is a brief intervention service available in the Lithgow area, that offers young people aged 12-25, who are in crisis, a set of specific individual appointments.

During these sessions, a clinician will provide support and help you navigate your way through the crisis – linking you to further services as needed.

The key aims are to provide:

• A timely and rapid response to young people seeking treatment in crisis, and to help manage your immediate risk and needs​
• An alternative to hospitalisation or to facilitate early discharge​
• Assistance with meeting criteria for acute services or link with other internal or external services where necessary​
• Brief evidence-based clinical services aimed at helping young people solve and understand their problems​
• Tools and strategies to help you prevent and better manage future crises​
• An opportunity to connect with your family, partner or carer (where desirable).

Who is Youth Plus for?

The program provides support for young people experiencing:

• Impulsive and self-destructive behaviour
• Changing emotions and strong, overwhelming feelings
• Problems with identity and sense of self
• Thoughts and feelings of suicide and self-harm

How do I access Youth Plus?

To access the program, you must:

• Be between 12-25 years of age
• Need more immediate or timely support than what primary mental health care can provide
• Not meet criteria for NSW Community Health or Child and Adolescent/Youth Mental Health Service​
• Be willing to engage in weekly sessions

Please note, the Youth Plus program is not able to support urgent referrals, acute risk or evidence of psychosis or disordered eating.

This service is supported by funding through Wentworth Healthcare, provider of the Nepean Blue Mountains Primary Health Network as part of the Australian Government’s PHN program.