4 days ago
Mental health support's surging demand puts pressure on Esperance community services
A community service group in regional Western Australia says it and others are buckling under the weight of the town's mental health needs as government service shortages drive severely unwell residents to its doors.
For more than 20 years, Chris Meyer has led Esperance Care Services (ECS), which provides food relief, help and a safe space for those doing it tough in the region, 700 kilometres south-east of Perth.
But he has never been so worried.
"We're under significant pressure at the moment," he said.
Mental health support services are in short supply throughout Australia.
And in country areas Mr Meyer said people often had nowhere to turn but community service groups who were not equipped to cope.
He said ECS was getting three times more requests for assistance than a decade ago, many staff were taking stress leave, and he even had to take out a restraining order against a troubled client.
Lynne McCosh, an advocate with ECS, said they had almost nowhere to refer people who needed urgent, immediate help.
"When we have people presenting that are in an extremely heightened state, what [do] we do with them right in that instant, in that moment?" she said.
Veronica Lavars, better known as "Click", has long sought regular mental health support for her daughter.
"Our daughter had her very first psychotic episode when she was 17," she said.
"She's now nearly 56 and she lives with us."
She said her daughter often saw a GP and was legally required to see a psychiatrist twice a year, due to her medication.
Ms Lavars also wanted her to have more regular appointments with a psychologist or psychiatrist, to form a trusted connection.
But she said her daughter was recently taken off the waitlist at the state government-run Esperance Community Mental Health facility.
"They say that they have a lot of people on their books," Ms Lavars said.
"Because our daughter has me as her support person [who is a strong advocate] she no longer needed to be on their books."
Mr Meyer said he often tried to put people in contact with Community Mental Health.
"But we get zero support."
WA Country Health Service's (WACHS) Esperance Community Mental Health facility has two psychiatrists, who visit Esperance up to six days a month from Perth.
Two full time equivalent WACHS psychologists service the entire Goldfields region, which has almost 60,000 residents.
A small number of psychologists also operate privately in Esperance.
The town has a range of counselling services, including CentreCare, Hope Community Services, ESCARE and Headspace.
Mr Meyer said the only real option in an emergency was to call the police or take the person to hospital.
But he said the Esperance Hospital was often not equipped to help.
WACHS said it had around-the-clock access to mental health professionals, via telehealth, who supported emergency department clinicians on treatment and referral options.
In a statement, WA Health Minister Meredith Hammat said she heard the community's concerns.
She said the Mental Health Commission funded more than $1.4 billion worth of mental health, alcohol and other drug services across the state.
Ms Hammat said further funding announcements on mental health for regional West Australians would be made in the state budget, on June 19.
"We obviously need to continue to make sure that we grow our mental health services right throughout regional Western Australia," Premier Roger Cook said.
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler's spokesperson said it was committed to delivering more than $1 billion for public mental health care and expanding the sector's workforce.
Anna Bonney, who works at Esperance Tjaltjraak Native Title Aboriginal Corporation and is a former youth worker, was also worried about First Nations residents, who make up about 4 per cent of the community.
She said racism remained an issue, which could prompt young Aboriginal people to leave school early and make it difficult for them to secure a job, putting pressure on families and the broader community.
"The impact and ripple effect from these things is entrenched disengagement."
Ms Bonney said many people who decided to seek mental health help soon lost faith, because of long wait times, being "tossed between" different services, or feeling unwelcome.
She believed health system decision makers, usually based in capital cities, needed to work harder to meet the needs of individual communities.
Mathew Coleman, chair of rural and remote mental health practice at the University of Western Australia, agreed communities should have more control over their mental health systems.
"Health organisers and people who resource health systems need to be listening to those local people," Dr Coleman said.
Dr Coleman said while some mental health issues had a genetic cause, others were due to social factors, stemming from things like access to education and employment, discrimination and distribution of wealth.
"Often in many places, because of the way that industries set up, there are the 'haves' in town and the 'have nots'," he said.
But he said small communities were well placed to address those factors.
For example, when a person came out of prison, he said, programs could be set up to prevent them relapsing.
Other programs could be geared at addressing social exclusion.
Esperance Care Services has long been working hard in that area.
On a mild Friday night, the smell of fried sausages and onions wafts down the main street, as volunteers cook a meal for anyone who needs it.
A small crowd gathers, pulling up chairs with their pets and children to enjoy the food.
Mr Meyer just wishes others could see how critical the need for more support has become.
"It's probably as hard a time as I've had it in 20 years," he said.
