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Medicare Mental Health Centre

Formerly known as Head to Health centres

Medicare Mental Health Centres (formerly Head to Health Centres) are a new approach to supporting people with their mental health and social and emotional wellbeing.

The centres provide a welcoming soft entry point for adults who are experiencing distress or crisis, including those with mental health concerns that are too complex for many primary healthcare services, but who are not eligible for Queensland Health community mental health services.

The centres offer immediate support, without the need for a referral or appointment. They also provide help to connect people with other available services, and ongoing care for those who need it.

To inform this new service, a comprehensive local codesign process has been completed during April – July 2025. Community members, service providers, primary care clinicians, and other stakeholders were involved in a series of workshops, meetings and consultation sessions to inform the design of the service to best meet the needs of the Mackay community.  The dedicated Lived Experience Advisory Group met 4 times during this period also to support the codesign process and findings.

To review the information shared during the codesign sessions so far, please refer to the document available in the Resources section of this page.

Lived Experience Advisory Group (LEAG)

A dedicated LEAG has been established to help guide the commissioning of the Centre and will meet regularly throughout the next 12 months.

NQPHN is proud to be working with Neami National, the lead agency for the Townsville Medicare Mental Health Centre.

  • You can visit the centre at 32 Walker Street, Townsville or call (07) 4766 8444.
  • The centre is open seven days a week and provides extended hours to improve access for the community.
  • Visit the Townsville Head to Health website for more information.

Cairns Medicare Mental Health Centre is being commissioned by NQPHN in partnership with Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service.  

Throughout 2023 and 2024, NQPHN and CHHHS engaged in a comprehensive local co-design process. A detailed summary of this work can be found  here. 

In early 2025, Mind Australia was announced as the lead agency for the Cairns Medicare Mental Health Centre. Read announcement here. 

Interim services are expected to commence in mid-2025 with the centre opening later in 2025.   

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