Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Helen Day is looking for a new home for THEMCO - which provides mental health recovery support to up to 130 Territorians every week

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Helen Day is looking for a new home for THEMCO - which provides mental health recovery support to up to 130 Territorians every week · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We know that there is currently a charity, not for profit,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: consumer run mental health organization providing a range of free
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: therapeutic services for residents within the Palmerston region. Unfortunately, right
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: now they're in a situation where well they need to
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  Speaker 1: find a new home. Now joining us on the line
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  Speaker 1: to tell us a little bit more is Helen Day
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  Speaker 1: from TEMCO. Good morning to you, Helen.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning and thank you for having me Helen.
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  Speaker 1: Firstly, for those out there listening who really don't know
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  Speaker 1: what tem CO is, tell us exactly what you guys
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  Speaker 1: do and what services you provide.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, we provide a range of therapeutic services that help
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  Speaker 2: and aid with the mental health recovery. But one of
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  Speaker 2: the most important things that we actually do is to
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  Speaker 2: help with the capacity building so that you know, the
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  Speaker 2: people that come, you know, have their rightful place in society.
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  Speaker 2: And it's about inspiring and helping people and giving them
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  Speaker 2: courage to, like, for example, go back into the workplace.
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  Speaker 2: So we've got a program that's running at the moment
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  Speaker 2: which is the Ntpeer Workforce Project, and we've got fifteen
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  Speaker 2: students that are part of that and they're all people
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  Speaker 2: you know that have mental health lift experience, and they're
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  Speaker 2: being by a couple of our team mentors that've been
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  Speaker 2: inspired and helped and you know, you know, to all
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  Speaker 2: their studies and everything. And the main name in the
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  Speaker 2: end is to help them to get work at the
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  Speaker 2: end of it as peer support workers and Helen.
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  Speaker 1: As I mentioned, it's a charity, not for profit, consumer
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  Speaker 1: run mental health organization, So I would imagine it's you know,
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  Speaker 1: you don't have a great deal of sort of excess funding,
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  Speaker 1: you know, to be able to pay rests on the.
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  Speaker 2: Two string budget. Yeah, for sure. Yes, tell us how.
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  Speaker 1: Many territorians you know, do you have coming into your center.
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  Speaker 2: Well, at the moment, on average, we have one hundred
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  Speaker 2: and thirty people a week coming through and they're not
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  Speaker 2: always the same people either. And one of the things
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  Speaker 2: that we do is that we encourage people to become
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  Speaker 2: members and last week we had five more new members
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  Speaker 2: come in, so we're continuously growing. So yeah, and it's yeah,
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  Speaker 2: people are learning more and more, you know, as time
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  Speaker 2: goes by, you know, you know, with the word out,
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  Speaker 2: people are finding out that we actually exist and we're
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  Speaker 2: here to help people, you know, within the Palmestan region.
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  Speaker 1: But unfortunately in a situation right now where you're no
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  Speaker 1: longer able to rent. I know that you were running
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  Speaker 1: you drop in service from the Salvation Army Palmerston Courts
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  Speaker 1: in Woodroffe. Unfortunately they're actually going to be starting up
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  Speaker 1: well fortunately for them, they're going to be starting off
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  Speaker 1: a new project. But what it means for you guys
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  Speaker 1: is that you need to find a new home.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, very soon, because we're actually only there till the
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  Speaker 2: end of June, you know, so Le's we get a
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  Speaker 2: little bit of a bit more of an extension, but
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  Speaker 2: that's been the cutoff the date that we've been informed
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  Speaker 2: at this stage, so we're getting a little bit anxious
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  Speaker 2: to say, say the least.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and so Helen, what exactly you know, what do
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  Speaker 1: you guys need? I suppose you know, what have you
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  Speaker 1: sort of been operating out of up until now and
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  Speaker 1: what do you need?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Well, we have seven staff that actually work for
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  Speaker 2: Timpcohen and again they're part time staff. And as I said,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we do work on a very shoe stream.
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  Speaker 2: We're not doing this work for the money, that's for sure,
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  Speaker 2: but we operate at the Salvation Army. They've got a
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  Speaker 2: very large hall, so we do a lot of our
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  Speaker 2: therapeutic activities, you know, from the hall itself, and the
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  Speaker 2: students who I mentioned before are actually in the amountable
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  Speaker 2: with the staff actually doing their training from there. But
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  Speaker 2: we also have quite a few other students that come
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  Speaker 2: in to do their work placement as well. So it was,
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  Speaker 2: as I said, it was on a large block of
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  Speaker 2: land at large building, you know, because we've got so
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  Speaker 2: many people coming through, and actually on that block of
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  Speaker 2: land we also had a community garden and so we're
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  Speaker 2: going to miss that and hopefully, you know, if we
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  Speaker 2: get the right place, maybe we're be able to build
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  Speaker 2: that again or something like that.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, and so we're I mean, were you
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  Speaker 1: paying a fee for rent? Are you sort of after
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  Speaker 1: somewhere that's subsidized? What are you kind of looking for now?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean I've been looking at different commercial rental
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  Speaker 2: properties in the Palmerstan region, but they're just way above
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  Speaker 2: you know, what we can afford.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 2: It's like I actually contacted you know, I said roughly
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  Speaker 2: about what we were paying at the Salvation Army because
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  Speaker 2: we were on a very good deal there, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: the real estate said, well, you need to get yourself
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  Speaker 2: more money you know, you're never going to get a
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  Speaker 2: place for that, and it's like, well, where am I
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  Speaker 2: supposed to find this money from? You know, it doesn't
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  Speaker 2: grow on tree.
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  Speaker 1: And this is the difficult thing, isn't it. You know,
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  Speaker 1: particularly if you're not sort of getting funding from from
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  Speaker 1: the government or the federal government. It does make it.
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  Speaker 1: It makes it hard. So Helen, I suppose it's a
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  Speaker 1: bit of a call out from you guys, isn't it
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  Speaker 1: this morning that if there is anybody that's in a
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  Speaker 1: situation where they might be able to help to really
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  Speaker 1: get in contact with you out at timko.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, we would really appreciate that because, as I said,
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  Speaker 2: you know, it's a home for us, you know, and
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  Speaker 2: it's a place where people feel safe, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: to not have that and not know, you know, you know,
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  Speaker 2: some of the options we've had is you know, like oh,
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  Speaker 2: booking this place here in that place, you know, one
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  Speaker 2: day and then the next day, and that's that's not
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  Speaker 2: appropriate for us. You know, our members need to know
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  Speaker 2: that they've got a home and they've got you know,
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  Speaker 2: no know where they're going each day, you know, and
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  Speaker 2: to have that you know, feeling of security and safety well.
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  Speaker 1: And what will it mean to those you know, one
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  Speaker 1: hundred and thirty odd participants that you see each and
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  Speaker 1: every week if they're not actually able to come out
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  Speaker 1: to teen Coo, to that drop in center and be
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  Speaker 1: able to receive that mental health support.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, it's devastating. We actually did some video. We did
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  Speaker 2: a video of some of the our members last Monday,
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  Speaker 2: and I actually put that up on social media and
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  Speaker 2: some of the you know, the things that you know,
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  Speaker 2: people were saying, you know, it was just heartbreaking, you know,
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  Speaker 2: to how much it would devastate them, you know, like
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  Speaker 2: you know, to not know where to go, you know,
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  Speaker 2: and how important it is that they've got somewhere to
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  Speaker 2: go each day. And it's so easy for them to
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  Speaker 2: go back, you know, with you know, living back in seclusion,
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  Speaker 2: and that's not what we want. You know. We've worked
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  Speaker 2: so hard to give people the courage to actually get
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  Speaker 2: out from them homes and you know and come to
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  Speaker 2: our center. And you know a lot of the people
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  Speaker 2: that come also help out, you know, they volunteer and
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  Speaker 2: it's you know, it's really inspiring.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Helen, I really hope that that some sort of
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  Speaker 1: solution is able to be found. I hope that somebody's
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  Speaker 1: out there listening this morning who might be able to
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  Speaker 1: help you guys in some way, because as as you've said,
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  Speaker 1: you know you've got you've got between one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: twenty and one hundred and thirty participants each week. You've
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  Speaker 1: talked us through some of the different programs that you do,
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  Speaker 1: but even for some of those younger people as well,
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  Speaker 1: and it does sound as though it's making a real
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  Speaker 1: difference for those people who are attending those programs.
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  Speaker 2: That's right. Even during the school holiday we've actually got
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  Speaker 2: from Salt Bush they're bringing out some of the fourteen
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  Speaker 2: to seventeen year olds to join out you know, with
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  Speaker 2: our program as well, which you know we encourage that
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  Speaker 2: during the school holidays too, So it's wonderful.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Helen, I hope that you are able to get
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  Speaker 1: some support. Of course, people are able to head on
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  Speaker 1: to social media and to search tem CO now it's
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  Speaker 1: spelled t E M HCO and yep, and they'll be
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  Speaker 1: able to find you on there. But feel free if
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  Speaker 1: you are out there listening this morning and you think
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  Speaker 1: that you can help in some way, to give us
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  Speaker 1: a call here at the station as well. Eight nine
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  Speaker 1: four one one o four nine, Helen, I hope that
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  Speaker 1: some sort of solution is able to be found. Please
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: keep in contact and let us know how you go.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Thank you, I really appreciate your time.
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  Speaker 1: No worries at all,