By Laura Michell
A mental health service providing adults with early intervention support with the need for a referral from GP will be created in Craigieburn.
The service – one of 21 new Local Adult and Older Adult Mental Health and Wellbeing Services announced by the state government on Wednesday, March 2 – will help adults to access mental health support when they need it and close to home.
The service, which the state government says was developed in response to recommendation from the Royal Commission into Mental Health, will act as a ‘front door’ to the state’s mental health system.
It will provide early intervention support for adults experiencing mental illness or psychological distress without needing a referral from a GP, and before people need clinical hospital emergency department.
The 21 new services will open from mid-2023 and build on the government’s plan to open six Local Adult and Older Adult Mental Health and Wellbeing Services in Whittlesea, Brimbank, Geelong, Frankston, Benalla and the Latrobe Valley this year.
According to the state government, up to 60 local services will be open across the state by the end of 2026.
Minister for Mental Health James Merlino said the 21 new services were “sorely needed”.
Today’s announcements will deliver new services that are sorely needed, with ‘front doors’ to the mental health system to make sure nobody faces barriers to getting support, no matter where they live,” he said.
Last week, the government also turned the first sod on the state’s first Child and Family Centre which is under construction in the northern suburbs.
The Macleod facility will provide specialised mental health care and wellbeing services to children under 11 in an environment that allows them to stay with, and be supported by, their families.
Set to open early next year, and delivered in partnership with Austin Health, the new facility will be staffed 24-7, the government said.
