By Tima Halloum
Mental health and wellbeing hubs across the state, including in Maribyrnong, have responded to more than 1600 Victorians seeking support over the last seven months.
Community-managed psychosocial service Mind Australia has been managing 13 hubs and new data has detailed the most common reasons people access their services.
Clients included small business owners struggling with the psychological fallout of losing business, housing shortages and people suffering from depression, anxiety and a lack of purpose.
Since the first hubs opened near the end of 2021, more than 25,000 hours of mental health support have been provided for residents and Mind Australia’s data has shown the number of new clients continues to grow each month.
The data also revealed women were accessing their services at a higher rate than men, with females accounting for 61 per cent of attendees, males 37 per cent and non-binary/prefer not to say/gender-diverse two per cent.
Mind Australia hubs service manager Rebecca Matheson Omondi said the hubs were “making a real difference in the community”.
“These hubs have removed a lot of the barriers to a very complex system,” she said.
“You don’t need a referral from your GP.
“You can ring up and be connected to a support worker.”
Ms Matheson Omondi said in the past, people had to be “really, really unwell” before they could access mental health services, but the hubs were open to people with varying levels of wellbeing concerns.
“They can sit down and have a cup of tea and a yarn about and talk about what’s going on at home and their social isolation,” she said.
“They can come to us for support to access a GP – they can come to us for a range of things.
“They don’t need to be deep in crisis before they reach out for support.”
Mind-managed hubs are now running in 13 locations, including in Wyndham, Footscray, Abbotsford and Greensborough.
Details: mindaustralia.org.au
