Local Health Support

Specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services provide a range of services in the local community to children, adolescents and their families. The service is for young people with psychological difficulties that are seriously impacting on their mental health and emotional wellbeing.

Clinicians work closely with the young person and their family to provide support and specialist treatment including offering assessment, education, access to psychiatrists and psychological therapies for a range of mental health issues including: anxiety, depression, severe emotional trauma, suicide risk and self-harm, eating disorders and psychosis.

Got It (Getting on Track in Time) Program

Got It is a NSW specialist mental health early intervention program for children in Kindergarten to Year 2 (5 to 8 years) who display emerging behaviour problems. The Got It team, consisting of Specialist Mental Health Clinicians, work with select schools to train teachers to deliver a universal program to all children (in Kindergarten to Year 2) in the classroom setting. The program aims to improve emotional recognition, social and friendship skills and develop problem solving and coping strategies.

Got It Clinicians run a small group program delivering attachment based interventions for children and their parents/carers. This supports parenting practices and strengthens family units to improve social skills, emotional resilience and self-esteem in children.

(Source: HNEKidshealth)

Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Services provide clinical advice and support to women and parents, who are the primary care givers for an infant up to 2 years of age, and who have complex and/or severe mental health problems. Clinicians work to improve the mental and physical health of parents and their infants; reduce the risk of relapse; and lessen the impact of the mental illness on the infant.

The State-Wide Outreach Perinatal Service (SWoPS-mh)

The State-wide Outreach Perinatal Service is a tertiary Consultation Liaison Perinatal Psychiatry service based in Westmead working alongside NSW public mental health services. The service aims to strengthen specialist mental health care for pregnant women, mothers, their infants and families throughout NSW. Priority access to the service is given to consumers and clinicians in remote, rural and regional districts.

The service provides advice and assistance in relation to preconception counselling for women, assessments and recommended treatment plans as well as clinical supervision (for local senior mental health clinicians) and perinatal/infant mental health education.

The Statewide service can be accessed by referral from the local Community Mental Health team.

Mums & Kids Matter

Offers mental health care, parenting skills training and practical support to mothers in NSW living with severe and persistent mental illness, who have children under the age of 5. The service includes a number of programs and interventions, both individual and group, tailored to meet the needs of the family. It is a state-wide service that includes: family coaching in the home/ community support, specialist support in short term residential care (in Sydney) and a range of other supports.

The Specialist Youth Mental Health Service is for young people aged 14 to 24 years with complex or high needs who may be showing behaviour that suggests a serious mental illness including psychosis. Clinicians help to support the young person and their family to link with services, develop goals to assist with recovery and provide psychological therapies that have been shown to be effective for this group of people.

The Specialist Adult Mental Health Service provides a range of services in the local community to adults with an acute and/or severe and complex mental illness. Clinicians offer specialist support and treatment including offering assessment, education, psychological therapies for a range of mental health issues and access to psychiatrists. People may access the service for help with post- traumatic stress symptoms, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, personality disorders, suicidal thoughts or behaviours and psychosis.

The Specialist Older Persons Mental Health Service provides a range of services in the local community to adults aged 65 years and over or for Aboriginal people aged 50 years and over. Clinicians offer specialist support and treatment including offering assessment, education, psychological therapies for a range of mental health issues and access to psychiatrists. People may access the service for help with anxiety, depression, severe emotional trauma, suicide risk and self-harm, eating disorders, psychosis and dementia related behavioural and psychological symptoms.

Community DBAMS are located in Wagga Wagga and provide outreach services across the Murrumbidgee Local Health District. The service aims to improve the quality of life for people with dementia related behavioural and psychological symptoms, their families and carers. Clinicians work in partnership with the person living with dementia and their care network to understand the causes and/or triggers that led to changes in behaviour. Dementia is experienced differently by each person and clinicians work to recognise and respond individually to these changes.

Family Sensitive Mental Health (MLHD Family and Carer Support Workers).

Murrumbidgee LHD Mental Health Family and Carer Support Workers each have personal experience as a family member or carer of someone with a mental illness and act as carer representatives within MHDA services. They have the following roles:

• Advocacy for the inclusion of families and carers in assessment, treatment, discharge planning and community support.
• Providing education and information to MH workers and the community concerning families and carer needs.
• Providing short term support to families and/or carers of MHS consumers and/or referrals to ODMH and other relevant support agencies.

Farming Community Counselling is a service created and delivered by Murrumbidgee Local Health District to provide a new way of helping farmers, farming families and the communities that rely on farming for their income. Dealing with stress from drought can be really tough. There are so many factors that may be out of your control. You might be worrying about your family, money and have feelings of loss. The stress of tough times doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with you. Stress makes it hard for everyone to think straight and make good decisions. Stress is also intensely personal – we all experience and respond to stress in different ways. One on one counselling can help you make sense of tough times, working with you so you can get back in charge of your thoughts, your emotions, your future and put you in contact with appropriate support services.

Farming Community Counselling is individual, private and confidential. It is available free to farmers, farming families and anyone who depends on farming for their income –agronomists to vets, seed resellers to shearing. If tough times on the land are making your life hard then do the right thing for yourself, your family, reach out and make the call to Farming Community Counselling on 0436 811 692. Alternatively you can call AccessLine on Free Call 1800 800 944. Farming Community Counsellors are based at Deniliquin, Griffith, Temora and Wagga Wagga.

The Mental Health Service also has a number of hospital based services known as Inpatient Services.

Recovery Unit

The Wagga Wagga Recovery Unit provides a unique 8 week residential program for people with mental illness who reside within the Murrumbidgee catchment. The Recovery program provides a range of group programs as well as individually tailored recovery plans developed in partnership with families, carers and other services. The program introduces participants to a wide variety of subjects to help build skills and strengths that may support the person in their recovery. Areas covered include: practical living skills, healthy eating, building self-esteem, assertiveness, managing mental health, social anxiety, psychological therapies, men’s and women’s health groups, employment and drug and alcohol issues, where required. Consumers are encouraged to identify a goal(s) for their admission and demonstrate a willingness to participate in the program.

Mental Health Acute Inpatient Service

The Mental Health Acute Inpatient Unit provides support for people experiencing very high levels of mental distress who may pose a risk to their own safety or the safety of others. People admitted to the unit may have no previous history of mental illness or may have a continuing mental illness and have experienced an acute exacerbation of clinical symptoms.

Staff work collaboratively with people admitted to the unit, as well as their family and carers, to try and achieve the best possible mental health outcomes for the person and ensure the right supports are in place when the person returns to the community.

The unit has a team of staff that include: Consultant Psychiatrists and Registrars (Doctors), nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, psychologists, drug and alcohol nurses, rehabilitation assistants, consumer peer workers and advocates, dietitians, pharmacists and family and carer support workers.

Older Persons Mental Health Unit

Older consumers who require a mental health inpatient admission are admitted to Yathong Lodge on the campus of Wagga Wagga Base Hospital. There are 8 beds known as Transitional Behavioural Assessment and Intervention Service (T-BASIS) beds for people experiencing severe behavioural and psychological symptoms related to dementia. The unit has a further 8 beds in the Acute Older Persons Unit. This is for people over 65 years who are experiencing acute, severe clinical symptoms of mental illness.