Dubbo Headspace: Mental health facility travels to Bourke, Brewarrina, Lightning Ridge, Collie, Walgett, Coonamble, Warren, Gulargambone, Nyngan for youth services

Dubbo youth service identifies a need to expand services to rural and remote communities to “close the gap” and “reduce suicide rates”. See what it means for kids here.

A central west mental health youth facility is hitting the road to deliver its services to smaller communities.

Dubbo Headspace will travel to provide services to 10 communities in the western region, including Bourke, Brewarrina, Lightning Ridge, Collie, Walgett, Coonamble, Gulargambone, Warren and Nyngan.

Aboriginal community engagement officer Travis Hill said expanding the service to rural communities is “vital” because the Dubbo base is more than four hours away for some communities.

“The kids in those areas don’t have a lot of mental health support so coming to them is really important,” Mr Hill said.

Jackson Plumb, Travis Hill, Riverbank Frank, Tim Carr, Brendan Cubby, Todd Marr and Max Hill. Photo: Tijana Birdjan

He said the Dubbo team travels to rural and remote communities once a week, but trainees who are currently completing their course at Charles Sturt University in Dubbo will get an “opportunity to become a wellness worker permanently” in those areas.

“We’ve already recieved a lot of feedback saying that there is “not enough support out there for Aboriginal youth, so we’re trying to close that gap and provide that support for them,” Mr Hill said.

“We just support them with what they need, whether that be getting them to sign contacts, setting up their IT services, more learning or anything else.”

Health and wellbeing workplace development lead Tim Carr said the communities “have a prominent say” in how they want the expansion to be developed and “how it looks like going forward”.

Headspace Bundaberg.

“The process is very consultative over a number of visits, it draws from a wide range of information from the community with various perspectives,” he said.

“We want to have a diverse picture of what each individual community needs and then we can tailor that specifically to each community.”

He continued saying the facility is “building a presence” in rural areas to “create a connection” with youth who need either need the facility or an introduction to other services.

Education support officer Todd Marr said the main goal is “to reduce the stigma of seeking support and suicide rate”.

“We want to help young people to overcome any issues they may be facing, like anxiety, stress, etcetera,” he said.