BENALLA residents packed out a forum on Wednesday night to tell of their grievances with mental health services after the tragic suicide of a 17-year-old schoolboy shocked but galvanised the community.
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Mother Melinda Pentreath described “unspoken male suffering”, particularly in teenagers, to the crowd at Benalla Performing Arts and Convention Centre.
“If they’re not involved in sport, they don’t belong,” she said.
“How do you get the children to come to you?”
Fellow resident Jill Fraser, who owns a pub, passionately implored the crowd to talk to one another in the street and communicate.
Benalla mayor Justin King revealed a new localised mental health service website would be available within a month, called Benalla Connect.
The website would differ from other services such as Lifeline by having an emphasis on Benalla’s demographic.
“We want people to ring beyondblue and Lifeline if they need to, but if they are genuinely wanting help now in the way of wanting to research information locally, that’s their portal,” Mr King said.
Victorian Mental Health Minister Martin Foley, who travelled from Melbourne for the forum, announced a new phone line service would support the council’s website.
Mr Foley told The Border Mail the service would be available 24/7 and work with NURSE-ON-CALL and beyondblue.
“We came up with the idea after council and primary health care providers said, ‘there’s lots of numbers out there but can we personalise one to the needs of Benalla?’,” he said.
Mr Foley said the phone line would be ready when Mr King finalised the website.
“It’s available, but it needs to be linked in with what the council and mayor’s situation is,” he said.
“It could be up as soon as this week.”
Indi MP Cathy McGowan asked from the crowd whether a similar service to Albury-Wodonga’s headspace would be suitable but panellist Michael Nuck, Albury Wodonga Health executive, said it may not suit a smaller population.
Benalla Council gave forum attendees a form to fill in for feedback to assist them in the preparation of a report they will table to Mr Foley to map out a long-term plan.
- For crisis or suicide prevention support, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit lifeline.org.au.