THE 2020 Wangaratta Youth Council were instrumental in the process of designing the headspace satellite office space from budget to development stage including the choice of wall and floor tiles, furniture and the colours to be used.
They also conducted and collated more than 1100 surveys with the youth of the area to find out what services were needed and how they could be delivered.
The culmination of their hard work saw five new staff members employed specifically for the Wangaratta headspace office.
“The young people who come to us want to be here, they want support and a way to connect while feeling safe and the facilities we have are inviting, vibrant, comfortable and, most importantly, safe."
One of the new Youth Counsellors, Beth Chester, said that finding qualified counsellors for this type of work and in country areas is challenging, but headspace’s model of placement opportunities and training will help ensure they are found and retained.
“I am a provisional psychologist doing a two year internship to become qualified,” Beth explained.
“When I returned to the area after university, I was worried that I would be limiting my job options but the position I got with headspace and the model they use to train new graduates and take them on is fantastic.
“There are plenty of challenges while learning but it’s good to be able to speak to other provisional psychologists as well as the qualified staff members as we span a range of ages.
“My role mainly consists of ongoing fortnightly counselling and therapeutic support for mental health related issues, anxiety, depression, personality difficulties, anger issues, management of emotions and understanding how to communicate how the young person is feeling at that time as well as communicating their needs.
“The young people who come to us want to be here, they want support and a way to connect while feeling safe and the facilities we have are inviting, vibrant, comfortable and, most importantly, safe.
“We want them to know that we recognise that the last 12 months have been challenging and that coming into winter things can get harder.
“I am at the Wangaratta High School one day a week supporting their wellbeing team and seeing clients as well.
“This is good for young people who perhaps can’t access our services during our office hours.
“We want to normalise conversations around reaching out and talking about mental health and wellbeing, work or study support and gender identity and we encourage young people or their families to get in touch to see how we can help.”