Mention a live-in mental health program and people may imagine austere facilities and practices straight out of a Hollywood movie.
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It’s just one of the stereotypes the staff of the Wagga Mental Health Recovery Unit are keen to dispel.
The unit, which opened four years ago, offers an eight-week live-in program for people with a mental health diagnosis. The program is voluntary and free.
“This is very different to anything that has ever existed here before,” nurse unit manager Innes Clarke said.
“In the general community our challenge is a couple of things, really. One is overcoming the stigma of inpatient mental health because people who have had experiences in the acute service are unlikely to go ‘oh yeah, let’s go to hospital for a couple of months’ because their experience is not necessarily that positive.
“They might think ‘well, I’m not sick enough to need that’, but we’re not here for people who are sick enough to need to be in hospital. We’re here for people who are ready to learn some new stuff.”
About 20 per cent of people who undertake the program – who are referred to by the staff as consumers – are drawn from the hospital’s acute mental health facility. The remainder come from the community.
“Consumers have to be willing to participate and they have to be well enough,” Mr Clarke said.
People doing the program are able to come and go from the unit. During the day, the program is a mix of education, support, therapy and living skills. It mixes formal “classroom” style work with practical sessions, one-on-one time and group time.
“Recovering in mental health is really about achieving what’s important to you. That’s really what we’re trying to achieve,” Mr Clarke said.
“About 50 per cent of this program is about classroom learning and about 50 per cent is working on goals. Every consumer identifies their own goals when they come in.
“We have people who have physical complaints and one of their goals might be to do a bit of exercise and lose a bit of weight or stop smoking.
“Mental health might be about managing to get a better sleep routine, manage their social anxiety a bit more, improve some relationships with people they have lost touch with, get their teeth fixed, pass a driving test – all sort of things.
“People with mental health problems neglect that stuff – for years often – and it just becomes bigger than Ben Hur and they can’t handle it and stick their head in the sand
“What we’re trying to do is help them tackle those things one bite at a time.
“The whole concept is that people start to feel better about themselves when they start to achieve things.
“When people come and and they say ‘oh the goals are just too easy, you just want me to make a phone call’, if that’s what the goal is, well yes, and you’ve done it and you can set another goal.
“But that’s how we all run our lives. We don’t say ‘these are the big things let’s do them all today’, we do one thing at a time.”
Mr Clarke said that while the unit’s program did not “offer a magic cure or make promises”, it was being taken up by a broad spectrum of people.
“We don’t discriminate about diagnosis; in that it’s not important to why people come here. It’s more about them being in the right place to make some changes,” he said.
Mr Clarke is keen to combat stereotypes about people who need help with a mental health issue.
“We’ve had a couple of GPs do this program, we’ve had nurses, we’ve had a teacher. Professional people become unwell as well, obviously,” he said.
“That’s important for people to know because you might not be so unwell that you need to come to ED (the emergency department), but something like this can hopefully make some changes.”
Mr Clarke acknowledges that not everyone does as well as they would like.
“We have had some people do the program a couple of times. We have had some people quit and come back when they’re in a better space,” he said.
“It is hard work at times for some people, and if they’re not ready for it and they quit, they’re welcome to come back.”
Anyone wanting to participate can actually refer themselves. A new Wagga Mental Health Recovery Program Facebook page has been set up to provide more information.
