Free mental health support, no referral necessary

IF you happen to be an adult 26 years of age or over struggling with your mental health, but feel bereft of options, there’s a free support service in Bendigo that you can access without a referral.

Emerging from the 2019 Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, Mind Australia’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Locals – which has a branch at 3/15 Hopetoun Street* (the former Council customer service office) – provide face-to-face, outreach, telehealth and telephone services, as well as walk-in consultations on certain days.

The organisation adopts a ‘how can we help?’ and ‘no wrong door’ approach to help more people to access support, including those who’ve previously been unable to find the right care and/or experienced barriers to accessing services.

Mind Australia’s VIC Locals Service operations manager Lisa Henderson said the offering is a consortium partnership.

“(We’re) the lead organisation, but we also partner with Bendigo Health, Echuca Regional Health, Thorne Harbour, the Salvation Army and the Bendigo & District Aboriginal Co-operative,” she said.

“(As a result), the support could range from connecting with a peer worker or a community mental health practitioner.

“We also have the lens of LGBTQIA+, we have First Nations perspectives represented in the space, psychiatry – both a consultant and a registrar – AOD services and trauma therapy.

“We pretty much aim to connect with people to work out which of these is going to best support them and to not duplicate any existing services.”

Ms Henderson said much care and caution has been taken in creating an environment that comes across as welcoming and inclusive.

“We’ve really thought about how it might feel for people to come in – we want them to feel as if they’re walking into somebody’s home,” she noted.

She said the other thing that people should understand when they reach out is the Locals’ lived experience workforce.

“We have people who have a really true understanding of mental ill health from their own perspective – they understand what it might feel like for them.

“It also inspires trust and recovery for people because they get to see somebody who may have experienced a similar journey or had similar challenges, which you can’t always get from books.”

Call 5497 5600 or email [email protected] for updates.

*The Bendigo office has temporarily relocated to Myers Street after flood damage to the premises.