Charlotte Varcoe
YOUTH in Mount Gambier/Berrin will have access to the region’s headspace ‘talk soon’ program.
The update to the existing walk-in services will provide on-the-spot support for young people when needed while not having to wait for an appointment.
It will provide Mount Gambier/Berrin youth with practical tips and strategies which will be able to be implemented to address their problems.
headspace Mount Gambier community liaison officer Nick McInerny said the appointments would then be supported by a follow-up phone call two weeks after the session to check in.
“We will check in and see how the young person is going and see which strategies they have found useful,” Mr McInerny said.
He said the redeveloped program was more structured and allowed staff with more time to prepare for sessions.
“Previous versions of the walk-in service was not an appointment based nature,” he said.
“Hence the unpredictable nature of people coming in for an appointment but we believe this pre-booked appointment based structure will be a more efficient use of staff time.”
Mr McInerny said staff looked forward to be able to continue to “evolve” services to better suit the needs of the community while also providing services to youth when needed.
“We are excited to offer this service to people in person as well as via telephone and online, to provide tis service to all young people in the South East,” he said.
People are able to book an appointment by contacting headspace to receive their same-day appointment with the new program delivering services via the single-session therapy model.
This includes a pre-questionnaire, answering what they hope to get out of the session before the headspace clinician reads the questionnaire and prepare resources to provide the client with tips and strategies to work on the issues.
The service is available between 11.30am and 4pm Monday, Wednesday and Fridays.
