After 2.5 years of living through a pandemic and challenging times, mental health faces the biggest challenges in our community. A lot of people have developed poor sleep, easily feel anxious (socialising and seeing other people), often feel on edge and find it difficult to relax. Even our young children find it difficult to go back to school. Mental health covers a range of things including our emotional, psychological and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act.
Most mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, panic disorder, PTSD, eating disorder, adjustment disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, coping with substance abuse and suicide prevention are covered in our mental health services.
A Mental Health Care Plan is a support plan for someone who is going through mental health issues. If you have concerns about yourself or your loved ones, book an appointment to discuss the difficulties. When you make the booking, ask if a long appointment — 20 minutes or more — is needed.
Your Doctor will assess whether you have a mental health disorder that will benefit from a Mental Health Treatment Plan. Working together with your Doctor, you will outline the goals for your treatment. That might include, making a referral (to Care in Mind, who will allocate you a mental health clinician or a psychologist), discuss the type of mental health care that can support you, and other strategies to improve your mental health.
Care in Mind provides a range of free mental health support for people in northern, central and western Melbourne. The support can be done through face-to-face sessions or Telehealth. It allows you to claim up to 12 Free sessions each calendar year. For individuals with a mental health condition, you and your counsellor can create a plan for the treatment and to manage symptoms.
Rosalie Chung is a mental health clinician of Care in Mind, based in Kings Park Medical Centre Hillside. She has more than 20 years of experience working with people with mild to severe mental illness, age between age of 15 to 65 years and over.
She has extensive experience in eating disorder, drug addiction and recovery program as a mental health nurse. She provides counselling and short-term focused psychological interventions base on Cognitive Behaviour therapy, motivational interviewing, acceptance and commitment therapy module. Rosalie can also be funded by NDIS, providing psychotherapy and other therapies to the clients with mental health concern.
As we all know, mental illness can affect our day to day living in many different ways. It takes clear guidance and practice to maintain good quality of independent living. Please ask our friendly staff for more detail if you or your loved ones need extra support.
If you find yourself unmotivated, feeling sad or experiencing other mental health stress. You can discuss with your GP to see if Mental Health Care Plan is suitable for you.
If You Need Support Right Now
You can call any of the following crisis lines 24 hours a day, 7 days a week:
- Emergency 000
- Beyond Blue 1300 22 46 36
- Lifeline 131 114
- Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467
- NorthWest HeadtoHealth https://headtohealthvic.org.au