Decade of youth support marked

SUPPORTERS and staff at headspace Ballarat celebrated the organisation’s tenth birthday last week with the community coming together to honour the occasion.

Headspace works to support young people with their physical and mental health, alcohol and drug problems, and provide work and study support.

The organisation’s key focuses include early intervention that can help young people to find the right support and build resilience for the future.

Headspace Ballarat manager Janelle Johnson said the 10-year milestone was a time to reflect on achievements.

“Since 2013, we have supported 6388 young people, providing over 40,000 sessions, to support them on their journey to better mental health,” she said.

“Each year, we help hundreds of young people, and their family and friends, access vital support through our one-to-one sessions, group support, online and phone counselling services and our presence in schools.”

Brodie Kamp is a member of the organisation’s youth reference group that aims to allow young people to have a direct contribution to how headspace is run.

“I think it’s the same as any demographic that you’re trying to help is that you need to involve those people in decisions that your making,” said Mr Kamp.

“You can’t make decisions for someone else without asking what is best, it just doesn’t work, and it doesn’t feel good for the people you’re helping.

“At the moment we are working on a mental health survey where we’ve asked young people in the community questions about what they think could be done better in the mental health sector.”

The survey has so far seen 1000 responses and reflects the opinions of approximately 10 per cent of young people in Ballarat.

Ms Johnson said there is high demand for headspace’s services especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, and the organisation hopes to expand into the future.

“We’ve run out of room again so we’re very lucky to have the support of our consortium members,” she said.

“We can provide a better breadth of service if we have more space.”

To cope with the demand headspace teams have been set up in Ballarat Health Service buildings.

Ms Johnson thanked the support from stakeholders and the community which have allows headspace Ballarat to develop of the decade.

“We couldn’t do the great work we do, without the backing of stakeholders and funders, our consortium members and of course the support of our community,” she said