Mental health and wellbeing hubs across the state, including in Wyndham, have responded to more than 1600 Victorians seeking support over the last seven months.
Data by Mind Australia, a community-managed psychosocial service that manages 13 hubs, details 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 says 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 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. People can self-refer. There’s no eligibility criteria. You don’t need a referral from your GP. You can ring up and be connected to a support worker,” she said.
Ms Matheson Omondi believes that 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. 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,” she said.
Details: mindaustralia.org.au
