Youth Focus is piloting a new service offering to regional mental health in Harvey and Capel. Care Navigation will help young people, and their supporters find the support the mental health support they need, when it’s not always easy to find or understand the options available.
Youth Focus, with the backing of Insignia, is launching a pilot Care Navigation program which will be trialed in two key South-West communities – Harvey and Capel.
Young people in regional communities experience significant mental health challenges, including isolation and loneliness, which can be reduced and managed if early intervention is available. However, limited mental health support and resources available in these communities, meaning distance and lack of access to relevant information makes finding support more costly, time consuming and frustrating. It is known that one-size-fits-all does not work in the treatment of mental health, where every person’s journey is unique and requires different levels and types of support, which makes seeking help even more overwhelming.
Mark Barrett-Lennard, Youth Focus Service Manager for Peel and the South-West, believes that the Care Navigator service has the potential to address an important issue impacting mental health support for people living in small regional communities. “The mental health system is complicated and trying to navigate it can be overwhelming and confusing, particularly in small regional communities where services and support are in metropolitan locations or larger centres. The aim of the Care Navigation program is to help make connections to mental health care for young people and those that support them The Care Navigator will have a broad understanding of what’s available, and accessible and the ability to create personal connections to make the process less daunting. We understand that asking for help when things are hard is difficult enough as it is, and we are hoping to make this process easier for young people so that more people feel comfortable asking for help.”
The complex landscape of health services is overwhelming for not only the young person, but those who are supporting them in getting help. This is where a Youth Focus Care Navigator can help, by offering support to:
- Navigate the mental health system
- Provide guidance, information and resources to get started
- Refer to Youth Focus for support or to other services providers as needed
- Build the community’s capacity to respond to the needs of young people into the future
The Care Navigation Program will have a physical presence in both locations – a dedicated point of contact that is both accessible and familiar. Young people and their support people will be able to walk in, talk to the Care Navigator and receive support and information about the care available to them in their community, as well as other options. Alternatively, the Care Navigator can be contacted though email, to make it possible for individuals to get in touch, ask questions and access the same support and resources remotely.
This service will be offered to young people and those who support them at no cost. By providing easy-to-access, non-judgmental support, the initiative hopes to increase awareness of available services, build capacity within the community to seek support and decrease the stigma around mental health.