11th Annual Report & Financial Statement - North Yarra Community ...

Casework, Counselling,
Information and Advocacy
Yarra Community
Support (YCS)
Drug Safety
Services
team reports
The Counselling and Casework Team provides
counselling, support, information and advocacy
to individuals, couples and families across our
centres.
The Team consists of:
• Family Counsellor: Provides counselling,
casework and groups for families living in
Carlton and Parkville.
• Refugee Support Worker: Provides a
mix of casework, community development and group
support to refugees, including people on Temporary
Protection Visas and asylum seekers.
• Family And Reproductive Rights Education Program
(FARREP):
Has a focus on community development, health promotion
and casework predominately with people from the Horn of
Africa countries.
• Youth Worker: Undertakes individual support, groups and
facilitates a drop-in space for young people aged 12 -18
living in Collingwood.
• Older Persons’ High Rise Support Program:
Provides casework, support, groups and drop-in for
people living at the 530 Lygon Street flats.
Jan Smith
• Drug and Alcohol Counsellor: Provides counselling to people
in relation to problematic alcohol and other drug use.
• General Counselling and Casework: Provides a
combination of short, medium and long term counselling,
casework and advocacy. Typical reasons for attendance include
family violence, immigration, relationship difficulties,
depression, stress, housing and a range of other issues.
The year has seen some exciting new programs developed,
including What’s the deal an early intervention art therapy
project focusing on the impact of gambling on young people,
and the Halal Food Access Project, a new group developed
to increase food access and reduce social isolation for the
Fitzroy Muslim population.
Mental Illness affects
people from all walks of
life, rich and poor, old
and young, and NYCH
practitioners are
experienced and able to
provide treatment and
support options to meet
individual needs.
In particular, the Yarra
Community Support
Team, our Psychiatric
Disability Rehabilitation and Support Service, works with
people on a wide range of issues to promote recovery and
enhance quality of life. The Team operates on a home-based
outreach model and can bring services to people within their
home or the community.
The Team was proud to celebrate 10 years of service delivery
in September, and to reflect on the growth and achievements
over the decade since a humble beginning in 1993. The service
now has the capacity to support 50 people at any one time
across Carlton and the City of Yarra and is an integral part of
mental health services in the area. To mark the occasion, past
and present participants put together a booklet of poetry, prose
and artwork. This beautiful collection of material was launched
at a special 10th birthday celebration and has been distributed
to organisations and individuals across the City of Yarra.
The year has seen the consolidation of the intensive support
program for people who are homeless or at risk of
homelessness and it has been inspirational to see the
difference stable housing with support can make to people
living with a mental illness.
The Team continues to have a strong and important role in
advocating the needs of people with a mental illness to
ensure that services and systems are appropriate and
accessible. To this end positive relationships have been
developed with the Consumer Consultant at Inner East Mental
Health Service and Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council.
YCS was again successful in securing a Community Grant
from the City of Yarra to continue the popular Pathways for
Women program. This program is run in conjunction with
local Yarra services and has a focus on assisting women to
develop a range of skills, raise awareness of general health
issues and provide access to other NYCH services.
Drug Safety Services encompass a very broad range of programs,
but all of them have a Harm Reduction philosophy, and seek to
reduce the harm associated with illicit drug use to users
themselves, their friends and families and the whole community.
Services which we provide to the community as a whole include
talks, workshops and training around a range of drug related topics
such as "safe disposal", "responding to overdoses" and "Cardio
Pulmonary Resuscitation".
During the year we received funding as part of the Local Drug
Strategy for a Dual Diagnosis worker (Mental Health/ D&A) and as
a result, Amanda (a psychologist) has joined the team, and we
were also successful in our application to the National Illicit Drug
Strategy for a Psychiatric Nurse, who will commence during 2004.
Our Services include:
Chris Hardy
• Primary Needle and Syringe Program
This program provides health information, referral, advocacy, new
injecting equipment and facilities for safe disposal of used
injecting equipment.
• Secondary Needle and Syringe Programs are located in each
of our Community Health Centres, and provide a similar, but
more limited range of services.
• Walkdowns are a service specifically for residents of the High
Rise Estates in Yarra, and provide a regular clean up of
inappropriately disposed injecting equipment and other drug
related paraphernalia.