A DESPERATELY needed one-stop shop of mental health services for young people is set to arrive in the south-east.
After much lobbying from health services, the federal government announced a headspace centre - run by the National Youth Mental Health Foundation - would open in Dandenong in 2013.
The Dandenong centre is expected to include early intervention services for 12-25 year olds covering drug and alcohol problems, sexual and mental health, and vocational support.
Service providers have been invited to lodge expressions of interest.
Mental Health Minister Mark Butler told the Weekly the idea was to encourage youngsters to get help early in life. "If you're going to have a mental illness in your life - and one-in-three of us will - then there's a
two-in-three chance it will emerge before you're 21and a three-in-four chance before 25."
Early surveys of the existing 30 centres in Australia
showed more than 95per cent of patients were satisfied with their treatment and would return.
Mt Butler said high school students he talked to in Ringwood had mental health, drug and sexual health problems were wound up in one. This meant an integrated service was needed.
He said the government was working to a 10-year plan to improve the mental health system for all age groups, though it requires state governments "to come on board". He said helping young people now would take the pressure of mental health services in the future.
He was confident the Dandenong centre would attract psychiatrists and clinical psychologists into the region, which had a catchment of 125,000 young people.
Shirley Cormick said such an early-intervention would have made a big difference for her daughter Suzanne, who she alleged suffered in south-east mental hospitals 29 years ago.
Suzanne, then 17, had mild mental illness symptoms.
She was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was petrified when she was immediately admitted into Dandenong Hospital's psychiatry ward.
Two years later she escaped from the hospital and jumped from Dandenong Myer's roof, suffering permanent brain damage.
Ms Cormick said her daughter's life was wrecked.
Nevertheless, Ms Cormick hopes there will be better treatment for young people in the future.
"The headspace idea is great news. It will make a big difference."
Ermha chief executive Peter Waters, whose organisation had lobbied for a south-eastern headspace, said the move was significant and over-due.
Ermha helps people in the south-eastern suburbs who have a severe mental illness
La Trobe Labor MP Laura Smyth said there was an increasing need for mental health services in the south-eastern growth corridor.
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