Headspace has rejected claims by two leading psychiatrists that it is swallowing up hundreds of millions of dollars for youth mental health, despite little robust evidence its services are effective.

Professor Steve Kisely from the University of Queensland and Associate Professor Jeffrey Looi from ANU had also cast doubt on the scale of taxpayer investment into the high-profile network.  

In an MJA perspective, they claimed of the $2.3 billion allocated in last year’s federal budget on new mental health expenditure, $766 million was directed to Headspace and so-called Head to Health centres designed for older age groups.  

But Headspace has hit back, saying the article had been “deliberately misleading”.