In my first speech to this place 2½ years ago, I spoke about the belief that we needed to do something different in the way that we deliver mental health services. There's been a lot of words spoken in this chamber since then by many people, but the reality remains that the gaps in how we prevent mental illness, treat it, support those with episodic or chronic mental ill health and their families are still too great—and we all know it. The level of mental ill health amongst young people is still a huge concern, despite the best efforts of people working in the sector. With half of mental disorders presenting in people before the age of 14 and 75 per cent before the
age of 25, targeting children and young people is critical. For families in the Hawkesbury and Blue Mountains there is no dedicated paediatric service, not even at the nearby Nepean Hospital—nowhere for children under 16 to be treated close to home.

Sadly, suicide remains the leading cause of death of young people. I have conversations every single day about mental health with people who live in my electorate. I remain concerned that we still have a hospital-centric
and fragmented approach to mental illness. We haven't invested enough in alternatives to hospitalisation, which leaves the mental health teams focusing on providing care to people only once they are extremely unwell. That
is why, when Labor was last in office, I was so pleased to be involved in the opening of the first headspace for our region, in Penrith. In May 2013, I joined then minister for mental health, Mark Butler, in opening a site that
was the first step in providing a no-wrong-door approach for young people concerned about their mental health. When Labor was in government we invested around $200 million over five years and we expanded the Early
Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre services that are delivered by headspace. During the 2016 election, Labor committed to keeping open headspaces in current locations as well as establishing new ones. We remain
committed to a headspace model and to expanding their reach.

A headspace in Penrith isn't enough to reach all the young people in the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury. So I'm very pleased to see that, after years of the community asking for this, Parramatta Mission, who manages headspace, is providing a youth outreach mental health service. This program will be welcomed by people in the Hawkesbury, like Stephen Lillie, from the Hawkesbury District Health Service, and Megan Ang, from the Hawkesbury council, who were involved in the roundtables I held early in my term and have continued to advocate and connect service providers.

The YES Program is for 12- to 25-year-olds who have or are at risk of developing a serious mental illness. It's designed to focus on young people who fall between the current criteria for headspace and the other criteria for New South Wales state mental health services. That gap is wide. It's early intervention that involves family and carer support services and continual engagement with the young person's GP, such a vital piece of the mental health puzzle. It is working with psychologists, social workers and mental health nurses—who, personally, I think are some of the heroes of our mental health system—and peer support coaches, who have lived experience of mental health. A young person can refer themselves directly to YES, as can family and friends, GPs and school counsellors, and I'd encourage young people and their families to reach out. When a young person is experiencing mental ill-health and the