Clubhouse rebrands and removes barriers
DEBORAH Bailey believes the way society addresses and treats mental health is very much a band-aid solution that aims to keep sufferers trapped in a cycle.
As chief executive officer of Toowoomba Clubhouse for several years, Ms Bailey said she saw first-hand how the system was failing people battling mental health daily.
“The way the system works right now, it might ‘fix’ patients for a few months to years and they might gain some useful tools, but ultimately, it’s not setting mental health patients up for long-term success,” she said.
“Here at Toowoomba Clubhouse we ultimately want to do ourselves out of a job.
“We don’t want our members to be in the system long term or come to rely on a service for the rest of their life, caught up in a never-ending cycle.
“If our members become too reliant on the service, then we’re failing them.
“We want our members to grow and progress on and out of our service and on with their careers, family life, hobbies and interests and passions, the clubhouse is simply a stepping stone back towards good mental health.”
Toowoomba Clubhouse has been operating in Toowoomba for the past 25 years providing a range of programs and opportunities for members to access mental health employment, education, life skills, and other mental health services and support they may need.
Ms Bailey said Toowoomba Clubhouse was hoping to continue to be a support network for many people in the Toowoomba community and beyond the Darling Downs region thanks to its new online programs.
“We are excited to be rebranding to Momentum Mental Health in the next couple of months to better represent the new services we offer and make people further afield aware of the opportunities we can provide them with.
Toowoomba Clubhouse has 185 active members, all from different backgrounds and careers ranging from 18-80 years old with a wide range of mental health conditions, but until now they all had to have one thing in common.
They all needed a mental health diagnosis in order to access a support service.
Ms Bailey said Momentum Mental Health was making enormous headway by removing this barrier.
“This is a very unique move for a mental health service because up until now if you have wanted to access a service generally you’ve had to have evidence of a mental health diagnosis by either a general practitioner, mental health nurse, psychologist or a psychiatrist.
“But once we rebrand as Momentum we will only require members to identify that they want to work on their mental health, that’s got to be the primary reason you want to use our services.”
Momentum will be providing a new evidence-based campaign called Five Ways to Wellness which encourages good emotional, spiritual, social and psychological health through connecting, being active, continuing to learn, being aware and helping others.
“The Five Ways to Wellness is a really great program because it isn’t simply about patching people up and sending them on their way,” Ms Bailey said.
“It’s about connecting people with the tools and resources they need to battle their mental health demons the next time they come to the door.”