By Goya Dmytryshchak
People are being urged not to walk on eggshells when it comes to talking and learning about mental health.
Mental Health Week, from October 5 to 11, will be marked in Altona with a week-long event at Altona’s Louis Joel Arts and Community Centre.
Counsellor and art therapist Mairead Ashcroft said people could drop in during the week to find out about mental health services and view an art exhibition made from broken eggshells by clients of Mind Australia at Williamstown.
Ms Ashcroft said the event was for everyone.
“Mental health is just the same as our physical health,” she said. “It’s a part of us that needs to be addressed. Just like you don’t have to have a physical-health diagnosis to care for your physical health, you don’t have to have a mental-health diagnoisis to care for your mental health.”
Mind Australia arts therapist Lee Agius said the art exhibition by clients was called Strength in Fragility, Beauty in Imperfection.
“It’s been a group process of collecting the eggshell and using the eggshells as just another medium to work with and having that metaphor of something that is delicate and fragile yet still can find strength,” she said.
Hobsons Bay council is continuing to campaign for a youth mental health headspace service to be established at Newport Community Hub.
In 2015-16, Hobsons Bay’s mental health inpatient admissions for 10 to 17 year olds (9.06 per 1000 people) was higher than the rate for the western metropolitan region (6.46 per 1000 people) and the rest of Victoria (7.85 per 1000 people).
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