Creating a street presence or website detailing mental health service availability in Benalla is the first priority for the town identified in a round table of key community organisations.
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The roundtable was called by the Benalla Council in response to the suicides of residents young and old over several years.
Mayor Justin King said 25 people representing police, headspace, health outlets, schools and other groups attended Wednesday’s meeting.
“We were able to identify a few things, the first, that there are a lot of services in Benalla doing a variety of different initiatives,” he said.
“The key message is we have a lot of services so how can the community through a pathway access those services.”
Benalla Health community health director Neil Stott said the organisation would continue to issue material informing what do when people were in crisis.
“We provide a comprehensive suite of community training services and we'll continue to roll them out,” Mr Stott said.
Cr King said a communications group had been set up to establish an umbrella website or a front door presence to provide information about available services.
“The second point that came from the discussions is looking at earlier prevention around bullying and cyber bullying,” he said.
A community forum has been pushed back to June 1 to include Victorian Mental Health Minister Martin Foley.
Cr King said there would be engagement with schools, rural communities and others prior to the forum which would be the main event for trying to capture community sentiment about mental health services.
He said the long-term goal was to source funding for a facility like headspace.
Euroa MLA Steph Ryan said there was a gap for young people seeking help.
“There are no doctors who advertise bulk billing services in town and some of the doctors tell me that there are no adolescent psychiatrists in North East Victoria they can refer,” she said.
Ms Ryan said there needed to be a conversation about trying to attract an appropriately qualified psychiatrist as a regular visiting specialist.
“I would love for the community to come together to see whether there is a way some of the doctors in town might be able to provide a specific service from a community facility, one morning a week, or a couple of mornings, where they offer bulk billing for mental health referrals for young people,” she said.