Operators of a mental health clinic that moved from Footscray Mall to Nicholson Street Mall say its new site will make it easier for people to access mental health treatment.
Mercy Mental Health’s Saltwater Clinic last week was blessed in a multifaith ceremony. Director Mario Blandin de Chalain said the new Nicholson Street building site was safer for clients to access.
“Our program tends to see people with more serious mental health issues … we tend to see people with schizophrenia, bipolar, affective disorder, serious depression and the like.”
The site was blessed by indigenous Australian, Hindu, Muslim and Catholic groups to symbolise cultural diversity in the west.
A welcome to country ceremony by Wurundjeri elder Aunty Diane Kerr was followed by a Hindu blessing by Mercy psychiatriasts and an Islamic ceremony by Mohamadu Nawas Saleem of the Australian National Imams Council.
The clinic has been named after the former European name for the Maribyrnong River.
