Talking about mental health
JEWISHCARE will visit Moriah College and Emanuel School to raise awareness of mental health issues today (Friday) as part of Mental Health Month.
JEWISHCARE will visit Moriah College and Emanuel School to raise awareness of mental health issues today (Friday) as part of Mental Health Month.
The organisation launched Mental Health Month last Thursday by hosting a Partners in Recovery consortium and Eastern Suburbs Mental Health Service inter-agency meeting, with over 30 organisations in attendance.
JewishCare’s Mental Health and Wellbeing team has also been accepted as a consortium member at Headspace, the National Youth Mental Health Foundation.
“We will work alongside 11 of the major organisations on how to prepare and roll out the different policies and procedures, and implement the Youth Mental Health Service in the Eastern Suburbs,” JewishCare manager, mental health Claire Gil-Munoz told The AJN.
JewishCare will be visiting the schools along with representatives from Headspace.
“Mind Australia states that 75 per cent of all mental health issues emerge in the years between 12 and 25,” Gil-Munoz said.
“With this information now readily available, one of the roles of JewishCare is to keep the community up to date with changes in the mental health sector as different services are available to different age groups.”
She said JewishCare’s challenge is the need to cater to three separate generations – the youth, adults and the community’s ageing population.
She added that while the community had come along in terms of awareness and acceptance of mental health issues, “we still have a lot further to go”.
“The word ‘stigma’ is still around, as is ‘shame’. When everything single person can reduce those two words in their conversation and talk about general health in a general sense, then we’ve certainly progressed,” she said.
Service director of Eastern Suburbs Mental Health Service Dr Ann Hodge, who presented at the JewishCare meeting, said it was an important way for the different organisations to see how they can work together to increase the quality of outcomes.
“We have to work and should work with the community managed organisations. It’s not a choice, it’s a necessity,” she said.
“What we can do together with JewishCare, [is] make an impact and you get an even greater positive result than if you try to do things separately.
“We can’t do things by ourselves if we want the best results. We’ve got to work collaboratively.”
If you need help, contact JewishCare FirstCall on 1300 133 660 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.
GARETH NARUNSKY
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