By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
HEADSPACE Dandenong, a long-awaited mental health service to save young people from “falling through the cracks” is set to open this month.
Headspace Dandenong, in the former Savers building in Lonsdale Street, will be a drop-in, early intervention centre for 12-25 year olds.
The federally funded service — founded by mental health expert Patrick McGorry in 2006 and since replicated in 48 centres in Australia — will be a hub of counsellors, psychologists, social workers and GPs.
SEE also: Dandenong youth mental health aid at capacity
South Eastern Melbourne Medicare Local, which is running the centre, assembled a group of young people to advise on the bright, warm interior design.
The aim was for the centre to be youth-friendly but with the privacy of a traditional health service.
“It has to be somewhere young people will be comfortable in. They have to trust the service,” SEMML chief executive Anne Peek said.
“Our motto is to find the right support for an individual. We don’t turn anyone away. No one falls through the cracks.
“We can step in at an early age, tackling things like self-esteem, fitting in, confusion and sexuality. Otherwise if you carry the burden of that into your older years, it can escalate.”
Ms Peek said the centre will reach out to Greater Dandenong’s culturally diverse communities, including indigenous youth and growing numbers of refugees and asylum seekers.
The service also links in with other health agencies, such as Youth Support and Advocacy Service and MonashHealth, and will venture into community groups, schools and health centres.
She said health agencies had been anxious to get a centre in Dandenong for several years.
SEMML’s chairman Nick Demediuk says “there’s no downside to this news”.
“It should make a big difference. In Geelong since headspace opened the youth suicide rate went down and there was quite a lot of improvement in people’s quality of life.”
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