Mental Health Care for Every Stage of Life

October is Mental Health Month, a time to start conversations, reduce stigma, and remind everyone that support is available. At GV Health, support is here for people of all ages.

Longer-Term Community-Based Mental Health Care for Adults

GV Health’s Adult Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Services provide longer-term care and treatment in the community for adults living with significant mental health difficulties. The service has now moved to a new building at 166 Welsford Street, Shepparton.

Senior Clinician, Magdalena Turvey, said consumers previously had to walk past the inpatient unit to attend appointments.

“Some said it brought back difficult memories,” Magdalena said. “Now it’s just a very relaxed feeling, and they’re really happy to come here.”

“It’s often not about dramatic recovery. It’s seeing someone who couldn’t leave the house reconnecting with the community. Those small steps are very important.”

Referrals are made through the Mental Health Triage Service on 1300 369 005.

Learning from Lived and Living Experience

GV Health’s Lived and Living Experience Workforce is made up of staff with personal experience of mental health challenges, who work alongside clinicians to support consumers and help shape the services.

Senior Consumer Consultant, Jacq Kiss, first engaged with mental health services at 14, and that continued until they were 38. Along the way, they were told they would depend on their parents for the rest of their life.

Today, Jacq leads statewide projects, owns their own home and lives independently.

GV Health actively welcomes people who have used its services into its workforce, recognising the value of lived experience.

“In some places there are rules that you can’t have been a consumer of the service to work there,” Jacq said. “Here, it’s no issue at all. The best way to change a system is through the people who have experienced that very system.”

“Just keep trying, even when nothing seems possible. People’s lives can change.”

For more information, visit gvhealth.org.au/careers/lived-and-living-experience-careers/ 

Your Care, Your Say

An advance statement of preferences is a written document that lets a person set out how they would like to be treated if they become unwell and need mental health care, from the treatments that work for them to who should look after their pets, and more. 

When Associate Director, Lived Experience Workforce, Aziz Bhatti, joined GV Health in 2022, an audit found almost none had been completed. Through his Project 100 initiative, he trained every mental health team and made statements visible in the clinical system. Within one quarter, GV Health became Victoria’s leading service for completion.

Aziz is now working with the Department of Health to add advance statements to My Health Record, so they can travel with people anywhere in Australia.

“When we already know what works for someone, our therapeutic relationship starts from the very first minute,” Aziz said.

To complete an advance statement of preferences, speak with your treating team. 

Hope Through Shared Experience

GV Health’s Hospital Outreach Post Suicidal Engagement (HOPE) program offers up to 12 weeks of intensive community support following a suicidal crisis.

Psychosocial Peer Support Worker, Bron Sands, draws on her own lived experience to support consumers in their recovery journey.

“I always ask for permission to disclose some of my past, if I believe that it may help them,” Bron said.

“I’ve had consumers say, ‘Wow, that happened to you and look at you’ — this can be you.”

“Always ask for help and never, ever, ever give up.”

HOPE is a community-based suicide prevention support program and not an acute mental health service. The team consists of psychosocial support workers with lived experience and mental health clinicians.

Referrals are made to HOPE by GPs, external services and other GV Health programs by contacting Mental Health Triage on 1300 369 005.