Orygen executive director Professor Patrick McGorry recently spoke with the Bendigo Advertiser about his hopes for a campaign the National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health is running ahead of the state election on November 24.

Bendigo woman Lucy Williams, 24, is one of the faces of the campaign.

Professor McGorry stressed the importance of accessible primary care services for young people experiencing mental ill-health in more remote areas.

“Not every area has access to good headspace centres, which we see as the front room for a modern mental health system,” he said.

Bendigo has a headspace centre in Pall Mall, which provides a range of services at no cost for young people between the ages of 12 – 25.

But Professor McGorry suggested pop-up headspace centres could bring help to young people in communities too small for a permanent presence.

“The main hub has got to be funded more heavily to do that,” he said.

There was also scope for headspace to be expanded to more regional centres throughout Victoria, in the National Youth Mental Health Foundation founding director’s opinion.

He was keen to see greater government resourcing for not only physical headspace centres but virtual services such as eheadspace.

“We’ve got to get access to primary mental health care for young people in hard-to-reach centres,” Professor McGorry said.

“Additional funding to incentivise the workforce and have a workforce plan has not been forthcoming.

He said access to more specialised care in rural and regional areas was even more challenging.

Related:

The professor suggested it would be worth exploring the merits of a visitor model for psychiatrists and addiction specialists.

Telecommunication-based solutions such as telehealth could also help.

“We just need more support from the government to actually make that happen,” Professor McGorry said.

“People in rural and regional areas should be more vocal about that”.

Earlier this week, Labor pledged $51.2 million to place mental health workers in every state secondary school if re-elected to government.

Professor McGorry said Orygen was also considering the merits of having a presence in schools. 

He said Labor’s proposal built on the previous scheme of doctors in schools, and said it was important the party’s proposed in-school services were linked in with the primary care system.

To contact headspace Bendigo directly, call 5434 5345. For urgent help, contact Lifeline (13 11 14), the Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800), or the Crisis, Assessment and Treatment Team on 1300 363 788.

In an emergency, call 000.

Have you signed up to the Bendigo Advertiser's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in central Victoria.