Year-round, nine Border Mental Health Service clinicians provide outreach support to older people across the region dealing with issues ranging from physical impairments to dementia.

Mental Health promotions officer Sue Cowan said referrals to clinicians had “grown exponentially”.

“It’s two-fold, there’s growing demand with the ageing population but there’s also a growing awareness of our services,” she said.

“Our services aren’t always high enough to match the level of need.”

Ms Cowan said a nine-week program about healthy ageing had run for more than decade purely off the back of community support.

“We started off with funding from the Victorian department of health the first three years after our pilots,” she said.

“It was determined it was a great program, we love the concept, thank you and see you later.

“We’ve received along the way some small profits from philanthropic supports, however it continues to operate based on key support of our partners.”

Ms Cowan said a  $3500 donation from the Hume Bank Charity Evening would go towards running the Healthy and Wise Program in Wodonga and Albury in July.

“It really offsets some of the trauma people experience when they hit the unknown of not knowing who’s out there to support them,” she said.

Hume Bank chief executive David Marshall said the evening showcased a film about early-onset Alzhemier’s, Still Alice.

“For us this is a really important and often not spoken about,” he said.

“It’s important to expose those and support the prevention and the cure.”

Beyondblue estimates up to 20 per cent of older people experience depression and anxiety.

Ms Cowan said older people were “not overly visible” as people experiencing mental health complications.

“It goes without saying that as a cohort there’s a high level who are under-recognised and under-treated,” she said.