A NEW mental health clinic open from today (December 8) will aim to provide better support to struggling Canberrans.
At the new “Head to Health Centre” in Deakin, Canberrans can receive a free consultation with a trained mental health professional by simply phoning or walking-in, without needing an appointment or referral.
The centre is staffed by a local multidisciplinary team which will include psychologists, mental health assistants, nurses, and social workers, along with psychiatry input.
“We’ve seen firsthand how uncertain times have led to an increase in demand for mental health services. Unfortunately, there are increasingly long wait times to access services locally,” said Think Mental Health clinical director Vanessa Hamilton.
“At Head to Health Centre our skilled clinical team will work with consumers to understand their concerns, provide information and support, and link them to appropriate local services.”
More information can be found here.
Who can be trusted?
In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.
If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.
Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.
Thank you,
Ian Meikle, editor
![Teacher Vanessa Jones has been living in Higgins since 2001, and while she loves the area, she says she is “fed up” with the neglectful ACT government.
The Higgins shops have been completely abandoned, says Vanessa, preventing the opportunity for residents to have a community-centred space to socialise.
They only received bins nine months ago, she says, and requests for a water station and repairs to the bus station have gone unanswered.
“It’s very, very slow,” says Vanessa.
“I asked for the zebra crossing on Fullagar [Crescent] to be repainted, and we had to wait about six or nine months.
“That’s just such a long time… we pay a lot of rates.”
Vanessa says assistance from the government only seems to go to communities with time-rich and assertive communities, leaving places such as Higgins, where the majority of households have both adults working full-time and English may not be the first language of the family, at an automatic disadvantage.
“If you’ve got two people working, paying a mortgage, raising two or three kids, they don’t have the time,” says Vanessa.
Vanessa says the lack of attention quieter places such as Higgins is receiving is starting to look a lot like favouritism.
Read the full article on our website citynews.com.au
#canberra #canberranews](https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
Leave a Reply