Generation Next provides education and information about the prevention and management of mental illness in youth to professionals, young people and the wider community. Our objective is to raise community awareness of mental illness through increasing mental health literacy, reducing associated stigma and positively influencing individual and community behaviour to improve the mental health of young people.

Generation Next aims to provide education and information about the prevention and management of mental illness in young people to professionals, young people, their families and carers, and the wider community. Our objective is to raise community awareness of mental illness, its prevention and management through increasing mental health literacy, reducing associated stigma and discrimination, and positively influencing individual and community behaviour to improve mental, social and emotional wellbeing outcomes for young people, their families and communities.

To this end, we reach out to young people, their families and carers, professionals who work with them and the wider community to seek solutions to the challenges that mental illness poses to us today both at the individual and societal levels.

Our vision is for a society where young people have the tools and knowledge to better look after their mental health, families and communities have greater understanding of how they can prevent mental illness and support those with a condition, and communities are free from the paralysing stigma that has too long surrounded mental illness and prevented individuals from seeking the help they need.

Generation Next is a genuine, community focused not-for-profit organisation. All our income is invested back into all our activities aimed at the prevention, early detection and management of mental illness in young people. We achieve this with an extremely small team – a total of two salaried staff! – and the generous support of other organisations. If you’re interested in supporting our work, you can find out more about getting involved here.

Generation Next achieves its objective of providing education and information about the prevention and management of mental illness in young people using a multi-tiered strategy.

We educate professionals in the education, community and health sectors that work with young people to support the prevention and control of mental illness in young people. We do this through developing and delivering evidence-based educational programs and resources.

We empower young people to take control of their mental and emotional wellbeing by providing them with the knowledge and tools to better look after their own and their peers’ mental health. We offer targeted student programsinteractive livestreams and other platforms and resources that build resilience in youth and enable them to better recognise risks to their mental health and increase help-seeking behaviour.

We raise community awareness about the prevention and management of mental illness in young people, increasing mental health literacy, tackling associated stigma and positively influencing individual and community behaviour for improved mental health.

We undertake research on current and emerging issues affecting the mental, social and emotional wellbeing of young people to identify preventative, treatment or management measures of mental illness in young people. This has led to the development of evidence-based interventions, resources and further research.

Generation Next fills a critical gap, working towards preventing mental illness and encouraging improved management by adopting a holistic approach that focuses on key stakeholders.

  • We engage with professionals who work most closely with young people and thus are ideally positioned to have a positive impact on their mental health, providing education, interventions and resources to increase understanding of mental illness and treatment options.
  • We work with young people across Australia, providing them with skills and knowledge to increase their mental health literacy and better position them to look after their mental health and prevent the onset of mental illness.
  • We inform the community, increasing awareness of mental illness in young people and how they can better support them to recovery and maintain good mental health.
  • We undertake research to support out activities, ensuring that our work is underpinned by a solid evidence base.

Generation Next enables our youth to become resilient, mentally healthy and actively involved in furthering the wellbeing of our communities.

Young people today have tremendous opportunities, however are also exposed to an overwhelming array of pressures, expectations and problems that are part of living in our complex modern world. Approximately 9% of young Australians aged 16-24 years are assessed as having high or very high levels of psychological distress, and one in four has experienced a mental disorder in the past 12 months. The findings are consistent – mental illness affects a disproportionately large number of young people, and with mental health playing a significant part in their immediate and long term quality of life, these figures are alarming.

Mental illness represents a significant challenge of our times – if we are to truly make a difference for our youth, we need to actively pursue the prevention of mental illness, as well as engage in activities that help young people better look after their mental health. This requires improving detection and management of mental illness as well as increasing access to programs and supports that enable young people with a mental illness to live happy and meaningful lives.