How You Can Help Bridge
The Gap For People to Access
Mental Health ServicesIt is pleasing to see in this last week, as we enter into Mental Health Month, that researchers at Charles Sturt University have received a grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). This is for a near-million dollar federal government grant to help people navigate and access mental and physical health services. Charles Sturt’s article includes how this grant will enable new perspectives to open up opportunities for our rural health workforce. However, Charles Sturt recognises too that regional areas require a different model of care than what operates in the cities. It’s time to recognise the fact that we need feet on the ground now!! Our regional communities are severely lacking specialists. Especially, those trained in pre-suicide prevention and postvention support. To alleviate the overstretched system, we need more funded mental health placements. If we can’t recruit them from the cities, we must create our own! Small towns, particularly, have a lack of services. This means people are left not being able to reach out people when they need to. If you, or someone you know, wants to help consider doing a mental health first aid course. This enables people to assist with youth or adult mental health by acquiring some basic knowledge, including: What you need to look for. How you can support someone that is facing crisis in their life. The need to look after yourself.
Face-to-face access and intervention for people in need is really crucial. This isn’t happening at the moment in rural communities. Having mental health gatekeepers can really help and may save a life! The first step is often having a conversation! A mental health gatekeeper can play a vital role, particularly in rural communities, to be someone people can reach out to and receive strategies to be able to move forward. Mental health gatekeepers are on alert and can step in if they see a situation not looking quite right. Sometimes this is all it takes! People often just need someone to talk to and share their story so as they can find that path forward. There are a number of avenues that you can take to help someone. The important skills are listening and empathy. It’s necessary too to be able to learn how to recognise what support level someone requires. Continually checking in is most important. So if you, or someone you know, has what it takes to be a mental health gatekeeper in your community, then take the steps to make this happen for this year’s mental health month! What You Can Do To Get Started To Offer Help Mental Health First Aid Australia run several training courses in mental health first aid. Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) courses are run all over Australia. They are available to any adult interested in learning mental health first aid skills to support another adult. Mental Health First Aid Australia has a network of 3,000+ trained and licensed MHFA instructors. The courses vary in cost but start from approximately $250 and are delivered face-to-face, online or a via a blend of both. The courses are based on guidelines developed through people with lived experiences of mental health problems and mental health professionals. Contact Mental Health First Aid Australia: Email: mhfa@mhfa.com.au
Phone: +61 3 9079 0200
Website: https://mhfa.com.au/
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