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Katie Woolf spoke with Northern Territory Primary Health Network CEO Gill Yearsley · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello, Katie Wolf and three sixty online at Mix one
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: O four nine dot com. We learned yesterday that the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Northern Territory Primary Health Network has announced that near Me National,
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  Speaker 1: in partnership with Larakia Nation, are going to be the
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  Speaker 1: lead provider on the Darwin Adult Mental Health Center. Now
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  Speaker 1: joining us on the line from the Northern Territory Primary
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  Speaker 1: Health Network CEO Jill Year's leg Good morning to you, Jill.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, how are you today?
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  Speaker 1: Very well?
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Jill?
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  Speaker 1: Firstly, what is near Me National?
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  Speaker 2: Okay? Sorry? So me My are a they are a
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  Speaker 2: mental health service provider that have been in operations since
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  Speaker 2: about nineteen ninety eight. They're established originally in Melbourne at
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  Speaker 2: the request of care as and family members for people
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  Speaker 2: access to mental health services. But since that time they've
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  Speaker 2: expanded across most of the states and territories of Australia.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, And so they are going to be they're going
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  Speaker 1: to be working in partnership with Larakia Nation and be
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  Speaker 1: the lead provider at the Darwin Adult Mental Health Center.
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  Speaker 1: Can you talk us through and sort of tell us
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  Speaker 1: a little bit more about the center.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So look, the center it's one of eight. So
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  Speaker 2: the government made a commitment. The Commonwealth government made a
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  Speaker 2: commitment in two thy nineteen that they were going to
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  Speaker 2: roll out these mental health sites across Australia and there
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  Speaker 2: are eight launch sites, each in a different state and territory.
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  Speaker 2: So the Northern Territory has won and that's the Darwin
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  Speaker 2: and the idea is that they are their new models,
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  Speaker 2: their new models of one stop service access for adults
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  Speaker 2: who are experiencing difficulty with mental health issues. It's really
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  Speaker 2: building on the models the success that some of the
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  Speaker 2: Headspace centers have had. So we've got access to younger
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  Speaker 2: people and their families, but there was a real gap
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  Speaker 2: it was felt for older adults.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is such an important service for us to
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  Speaker 1: be able to access and to be provided. How will
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  Speaker 1: people will anybody be able to go there or what
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  Speaker 1: will the process be in terms of being able to
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  Speaker 1: go to that center?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so the intended aain well actually the stated aim.
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  Speaker 2: So the Department of Health Commonwealth has been very clear
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  Speaker 2: about the expectations of these centers. So they are to
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  Speaker 2: be operating seven days a week. They are to be
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  Speaker 2: operating at an hour. So initially the one here in
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  Speaker 2: jim we will operate between eleven am and eleven pm.
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  Speaker 2: And yes, people can turn up to see someone and
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  Speaker 2: talk to someone and from that initial contact a discussion
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  Speaker 2: will be held about what's the best pathway to refer
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  Speaker 2: that person onto.
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  Speaker 1: Jill, where is this center going to be based exactly?
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  Speaker 2: Well, we're not sure yet. So we're going to be
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  Speaker 2: perhaps going to be part of the co designed process
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  Speaker 2: and working with the community about where's the best site.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it needs to be in the community, so
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  Speaker 2: it won't be based on the hospital site, but it
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  Speaker 2: needs to be near enough the hospital should Indeed, we
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  Speaker 2: need to be working with our partners in the anti
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  Speaker 2: health department regarding transfers. But it also needs to be
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  Speaker 2: accessible for people with public transports. Many of our population
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  Speaker 2: do not have access to private transport and people need
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  Speaker 2: to be able to access it as they go about
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  Speaker 2: their daily business and not feel triumatized by doing so.
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  Speaker 1: Jill, how soon are we anticipating that it's going to
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  Speaker 1: be operational.
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  Speaker 2: We are hoping and certainly we are working with the
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  Speaker 2: providers that we will be operational by October to December
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  Speaker 2: this calendar year. Now, I'm sure it won't be completely
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  Speaker 2: up and running by them, but we are at least
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  Speaker 2: hoping to have the initial semblance of a service commissioned
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  Speaker 2: and active by that time.
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  Speaker 1: Now, can you tell us a little bit more about
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  Speaker 1: I suppose some of those services that you anticipate it
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  Speaker 1: will be able to provide as well, you know, because
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  Speaker 1: I know that there will be plenty of people out
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  Speaker 1: there listening this morning who are wondering if it's going
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  Speaker 1: to help them.
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  Speaker 2: Look, the intention is it's about how do we work
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  Speaker 2: with the existing service providers in our communities, and we
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  Speaker 2: have lots of those already and increase and develop and
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  Speaker 2: platform off what they already provide. One of the biggest
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  Speaker 2: conversations we have with families and their carers and people
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  Speaker 2: trying to access services is they don't know where to go.
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  Speaker 2: So we actually have a whole suite of services already
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  Speaker 2: available in the community, but not enough. Obviously, these services
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  Speaker 2: will be able to do clinical triage, so they'll be
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  Speaker 2: able to identify if a person has sorts of self harm,
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  Speaker 2: if a person needs to see a GP, if a
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  Speaker 2: person needs to see a psychologist, or if indeed a
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  Speaker 2: person needs to support from another person who's experienced of
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  Speaker 2: mental health issues. A lift experience workers as we call them,
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  Speaker 2: in the sector, and also thinking of an Aboriginal autocia
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  Speaker 2: armed a community and our cold community. How do we
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  Speaker 2: link people with appropriately culturally appropriate people to help support
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  Speaker 2: them through a journey of discussion around their experiences and
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  Speaker 2: what they need. Oftentimes, I think people's experience and interactions
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  Speaker 2: with mental health services is complicated by their inability to
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  Speaker 2: fully explain and explore what's going on for them.
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  Speaker 1: Jill, are we finding here in the Northern Territory that
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  Speaker 1: we have an increase in the number of people who
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  Speaker 1: require those mental health services?
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  Speaker 2: Certainly the feedb we've had from our partners in the
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  Speaker 2: community and we've had from our partners in the Northern
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  Speaker 2: Territory government is that the access for services has increases
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  Speaker 2: and the impacts of COVID. I mean, whilst in the
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  Speaker 2: Northern Territory they've not been the same as other areas,
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  Speaker 2: there are certainly impacts in terms of job opportunities and employment,
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  Speaker 2: and I think for a lot of the population it's
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  Speaker 2: particularly complex and look, I would say there has been
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  Speaker 2: an increase in access. I also think that's that people's
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  Speaker 2: willingness to begin to talk about needing support. So it's
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  Speaker 2: about how do we then we if we're seeing that
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  Speaker 2: increased requirement for access, you know, how do we respond
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  Speaker 2: to that in a way that's respectful and appropriate.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah? Absolutely, And I do think that, you know, I
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  Speaker 1: hope that we are breaking down some of the stigma
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  Speaker 1: which is attached to mental health issues. You know, I
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  Speaker 1: think that realistically, we've got to look at this in
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  Speaker 1: the same way that we look at any other health issue.
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  Speaker 2: Oh absolutely. You know, if we look at the the
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  Speaker 2: if we look at the what we would call the
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  Speaker 2: burden of disease. I don't like that term, but if
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  Speaker 2: we look at the from the you know, the World's
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  Speaker 2: Health organization and most first world countries, they're burden of disease,
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  Speaker 2: mental health is one of the top at least five
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  Speaker 2: or ten. And yet we don't We've still got this
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  Speaker 2: narrative going on in our community that somehow we don't
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  Speaker 2: talk about it in our community. In DA when we
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  Speaker 2: have a very diverse community. We have people from the
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  Speaker 2: Aboriginal and Toach owned community coal communities. We have x
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  Speaker 2: ADF members and their families. We have people who might
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  Speaker 2: be dislocated from a family because of work reasons, and
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  Speaker 2: all of those people are vulnerable at risk. The other
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  Speaker 2: thing we have as well in the Northern Territory is
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  Speaker 2: that our population is actually a very young population, and
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  Speaker 2: you know, that transition between youth and adulthood, which really
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  Speaker 2: extends to in the mid thirties, if we think about
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  Speaker 2: life transitions now is a really tricky, complex space for
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  Speaker 2: people's experience, and I think that you know, people are
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  Speaker 2: beginning to reach out and access services in a much
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  Speaker 2: more appropriate way, Jill, if you.
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  Speaker 1: Know, what can we do to help a friend or
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  Speaker 1: a family member or ourselves. You know, anybody that's listening
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  Speaker 1: this morning that may be thinking, look, this center sounds great,
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  Speaker 1: but it's still a while off opening, and they're just
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  Speaker 1: wondering what they can do, or maybe we've got a
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  Speaker 1: family member who they would like to try and help.
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  Speaker 1: What can we do in those initial stages.
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  Speaker 2: The first instance obviously always go to your primary health provider,
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  Speaker 2: to your GP. If people have access to a GP
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  Speaker 2: and are willing to go and talk to their GP,
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  Speaker 2: that would be the most sensible strategy. If people don't
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  Speaker 2: want to do that, and there are people who don't,
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  Speaker 2: you know, the Beyond Blue national website and the Lifeline
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  Speaker 2: national website. There's also our local services. We also have
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  Speaker 2: our headspace services here in Gawen. We also have some
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  Speaker 2: other services which advertise regularly on TV. There's Team Health
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  Speaker 2: who are funded by the Northern Territory government and we
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  Speaker 2: are at the NTPH and we also have a mental
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  Speaker 2: health website which is the www dot mental Health nt
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  Speaker 2: dot com dot au and that lists all of our
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  Speaker 2: services in the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Jill years Lee, the Northern Territory Primary Health Network CEO,
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  Speaker 1: we really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so very
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  Speaker 1: much for having a chat with us.
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  Speaker 2: No, thank you, and I'm glad to see you such
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  Speaker 2: an active interest in this space. Thanks Katie, thank you.
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  Speaker 1: And yeah, you know, I think that this is a
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  Speaker 1: great announcement. Once this facility is up and running, it's
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  Speaker 1: going to be incredibly helpful, I reckon for a number
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  Speaker 1: of Territorians who obviously are suffering from mental health issues.
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  Speaker 1: And as I said then in that discussion with Jill,
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  Speaker 1: I do think that if there is anything that we
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  Speaker 1: can do to sort of really try to break down
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  Speaker 1: those stigmas that can be sometimes associated with mental health issues,
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  Speaker 1: it's so incredibly important that we do so