The Illawarra will have two new free mental health clinics by the end of the year, with work underway to turn the ground floor of the former Shellharbour council chambers into a hub for young people and adults.
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The Warilla building will be home to a new headspace - which provides mental health, drug and alcohol, and work and study support for young people aged 12 to 25 - as well as the Illawarra's first permanent Head to Health mental health service for adults.
The centre will be operated by Grand Pacific Health, which was awarded the tender to run both services for region's primary health network with funding from the Australian Government's national headspace program.
Grand Pacific Health CEO Adam Phillips said the two services would help people in mild to moderate mental health distress and were designed to stop people getting to "an acute phase of mental illness".
"We locate headspace and Head to Health in areas where we think the community really needs it and the federal government decides where those places are," he said.
"Everywhere in Australia is stressed at the moment, especially young kids, so the earlier that we can get to young kids the better."
He said efforts to secure a suitable building for the program had been ongoing for some time.
"It's been a bit of a tough negotiation, because in Warilla there are not many sites and we really want to be able to locate services where the people who need it are," he said.
"Because this is the old council building, it means it's really accessible, it's in the right location for the community, and it's been really hard to find good sites in this area. We've been very fortunate to get it."
The former council chambers is now privately owned by a company called Cel Bare Pty Ltd and is currently undergoing significant refurbishment work on the outside, with Grand Pacific Health planning to fit-out the inside for both services by December.
Mr Phillips said finding a space for both the adult and youth services was good for staff and the community.
"By co-locating the service, it's really attractive for clinicians and also support workers to come and work for us," he said.
"It will look like a brand new space."
CEO of the South Eastern NSW Primary Health Network Prudence Buist said Grand Pacific Health had a track record of running mental health services across the region.
"Grand Pacific Health has proven success in delivering services for young people and their families and currently operate- headspace centres commissioned by COORDINARE in Wollongong, Nowra, Goulburn, Bega and Yass," she said.
Mr Phillips said Headspace Nowra and Wollongong would continue to provide support to young people in the Shellharbour and Kiama areas until the new service opens.
"Referrals from this region have been growing steadily, demonstrating there is indeed a need for additional youth-specific mental health services," he said.
"The feedback we are getting is that headspace is being identified as a safe place to go and we're looking forward to expanding this work in Shellharbour."
Young people or families in the area wanting to access the current headspace services can do so by contacting headspace Wollongong on 42207660 or headspace Nowra on 44467300.
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
