Specialised Resources for people who are experiencing unique or complex mental health concerns.
In here, you will find a useful guide of resources for specific concerns such as depression, anxiety, addiction, eating disorders, trauma and relationships struggles.
concerns regarding depression, anxiety, panic
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9 week psycho-education program for participants to manage their Depression, Anxiety or Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
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A therapeutic day program to overcome behaviors that exacerbate and permeate mental ill health.
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A 12 week program for individuals to work on their mental health and wellbeing.
They also provide homelessness and suicide prevention support.
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A psychology service outside the medicare system to support those who want to do more therapy at a financially viable rate than medicare can offer in the year.
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For people suffering from depression, anxiety and stress.
Find out more about their completely free therapeutic service here.
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An interactive self help guide for young adults struggling with depression, anxiety and stress.
aDDICTION
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St Vincent’s hospital has a tailored support program for those wanting to overcome addictive behaviors with drugs and alcohol.
They have a variety of counseling services and detox units that are available to public health on medicare.
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NSW health initiative around smoking, substance and alcohol misuse.
ICanQuit also has a database for appropriate care.
You can call their hotline for an immediate callback service for anyone in recovery, resisting turning back to addiction or just needing an adviser on how to start the process of detangling yourself from addictive behaviors
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ACON provides addiction services centering on the needs of LGBTQI+ community as well as potential co-existing conditions referrals such as DV, HIV etc.
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You can join a local 12 step community for recovery from substance misuse.
12 Step is separated into support groups based on: alcohol AA; substances NA; Ice CMA; sex and love addiction SLAA; Codapendency CODA; Partners, parents and childrens of ‘addicts’ ALANON.
These support groups exist all over the world and have groups running online and in person at any given time.
All are welcome. No matter if you are one minute sober or seventeen years sober.
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Most registered psychologists, counselors and psychotherapists will work with substance misuse in a 1:1 setting.
Consider inpatient treatment if you are unable to refrain from misusing substances like alcohol or drugs.
Click here and you will be informed about the medically considered range of substance addiction as well as signs that this is the direction you or someone you care for is heading.
You can access 1:1 support by contacting your local GP for medicare support, or you can reach out directly to a psychotherapist.
This is a personal choice.
Psychologists usually cost $250 p/h with a 2-3 month wait time and medicare can cover up to $131AUD for 10 sessions.
Psychotherapists usually have no wait lists and charge between $120-$140 per session and some can claim with private health cover.
Price-wise, there is not much difference except in treatment approach.
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Helm has behavioral specialists trained to address problematic behaviors around addiction that can include gambling, drugs or alcohol.
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Lifeline provides resources and links to community local drug and alcohol services. They also provide an overview as to what misuse looks like. This is especially useful if you're not sure about the nature of your relationship to substances and question if you might need support.
These services are LGBTQI+ sensitive as well as provide CALD and First Nations support.
There are a variety of residential, inpatient programs a person can attend if seeking support on the varying types of addiction to substances such as prescription or recreational drugs, alcohol (ETOH), gambling, ‘sexually acting out’ behaviours, caffeine, food addictions and shopping addictions.
Attending 1:1 therapy is a must if you’re looking to overcome ‘acting out behaviors’ with addictive substances.
This allows an individual to deeply understand what brings someone to misuse substances to begin with. If an individual can address this core instigator, their challenge with addiction can lessen.
Disordered eating
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Entitles you to 40 medicare rebated sessions with an eating disorder specialist and 20 nutritionist sessions.
Learn more of the ins and outs of accessing this service here.
You access an EDP through your GP the same way you would a Mental Health Care Plan, book an appointment, ask for one in the session, complete a questionnaire that determines your suitability for this service.
Sharing this information can feel exposing and it is the only reference path for a financially supportive way into specialized treatment.
Being as open and honest as you can with your GP will help your accessibility to this service.
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National 24/hr helpline, GP support, day program group therapy and in depth information that helps those experiencing and those supporting someone with disordered eating with their recovery.
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a psychology clinic dedicated to treating disordered eating in 1:1 therapy. In person Cremorne, NSW or telehealth nationally. Outpatient, which means attending a program from home, not living residentially in a home.
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A psychology clinic dedicated to trauma and disordered eating.
A whole picture perspective of eating disorders, how they occur, what exacerbates them, how they show up and how they impact an individual long term. You will aim to heal this.
They have 1:1, group, yoga, telehealth and workshops.
Birch Tree has outpatient programs, which means attending a program from home, not living residentially in a home. -
Institute specifically for Eating Disorders.
They aim at transforming prevention, early intervention and treatment landscape of disordered eating. For those experiencing, those supporting and those clinically working with an eating disorder. Government funded.
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A specialized eating disorder clinic in St Leonard’s.
They focus on comorbidities that present with disordered eating that influence the trajectory of recovery. For example, the coinciding presence of depression, anxiety, OCD, mood disorders or ADHD. Outpatient, which means attending a program from home, not living residentially in a home.
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Central Coast and Newcastle based clinic for eating disorder treatment.
Outpatient service, which means attending a program from home, not living residentially in a home.
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Ramsay health provides an eating disorder inpatient program for young adults 14 and over.
As it is residential it means living in the hospital for 3-5 weeks of treatment.
The program includes daily group therapy, nursing, medication, psychiatry and social support.
Other things included are art therapy and family time. Private health required otherwise paying out of pocket ($30,000 est.), not subsidized by medicare.
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Butterfly Foundations inpatient treatment for eating disorders. QLD based, interstate admissions. Residential, which means staying at Wandi Nerida for a set amount of time (roughly 60 days.
This program supports children 16 years of age and up with special considerations made for those 14-16 years of age.
It is voluntary meaning all attending want to be there to overcome ED.
Private health required, cost of program is roughly $73,000 and private health covers $23,000 of this. No medicare subsidies.
We understand that these resources are harder to find and will cross over between states as access has been made virtual for most.
relationships
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This resource teaches you about being in relationship, supports kids through parental separation, provides courses for partners who struggle with anger or are children from families of DV and want to improve their relationship likelihood.
They also provide couples counseling, family therapy and mediation of separation.
Relationships Australia also has a wealth of resources available to young people on what a supportive relationship looks like.
They have local branches in states all around Australia.
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Counseling, mediation, relationship workshops, workplace support and information on building sustainable partnerships.
Relationship matters have courses for men who want to change their behavior based on their childhood trauma, general learning workshops and LGBTQI+ programs.
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This branch of Reach Out educates young people who are single, in a relationship or looking to exit one, on the best ways to do this.
It educates on what are your values, what are warning signs, what is prevention and intervention, how to support and build intimacy.
It can be specifically curated for young people, indigenous and LGBTQI+.
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Ask Izzy is a search tool that supports families or individuals leaving domestic violence.
It connects you to the most relevant support network. It can be used for more than crisis but also for working through potential relationship hurdles.
Izzy connects people with housing, meals, money help, family violence support, counseling, drugs and alcohol and much more. It is also free and anonymous.
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Considered an international heavyweight in the science behind relationships.
40 years of research into what makes love last and how to overcome gridlock issues.
They have self guided courses for couples as well as one of the largest databases for couples counseling in the niche training Gottman Method.
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This is an effective and safe way to work through issues in a relationship that are causing tension.
It is supportive and builds up the relationship. It can be confronting but it is a well worth it form of action in a relationship, particularly if being in a relationship or in a commitment is new or if an individual has significant trauma in their life.
This helps the couple overcome any ripple effects an individual's life experiences has on a partnership.
Couples Counselling allows both partners to better explore themselves and how they show up in a relationship.
To access this, you simply need search couples counseling near your postcode, it is not covered by medicare and only some private health funds can cover it.
sPECIALISED CARE for trauma
A Guide
Healing from trauma is not linear, some days it is many steps forward and nearly as many back a few days later. It can be grueling and yet it is also worth it.
Trauma can be addressed in a few ways:
Through a 1:1 therapist, through an inpatient program or through an online course of group therapy once a week.
1:1 therapy is the minimum that an individual who has suffered trauma could be undertaking to heal. From here there are adding approaches such as: breathwork, meditation, inpatient programs catered to your specific trauma i.e. PTSD, Veteran, Sexual abuse, Domestic Violence, Alcoholism or children of alcoholics. The possibilities are endless. The ‘best practice’ as NSW health states is a 3-leg approach, i.e. medication, 1:1 therapy and a support group, or, inpatient, 1:1 therapy, 12-step, or, 1:1 therapy, group therapy 1x a fortnight and self education. A three legged approach to healing trauma allows leeway if one of the legs falls down.
Speak to your medical professional today about organizing a treatment plan for healing trauma. This can be your 1:1 therapist, your GP or your psychiatrist. If you don't have any of these, start by finding the right GP for you and get them across your experience and your goals around it. From there you can build out a plan.
Australia has a wealth of private practices (which means an individual therapist’s business) across every suburb that can help an individual or a loved one with beginning the process of healing trauma. You do not have to see the psychologist that a GP refers to, the GP database is not designed to cater to individual Mental Health needs, but to list all the therapists that have the rebate.
If you want to work on trauma or any specific issue, you can research and find a person yourself and then go to your GP with that name and discuss how to best approach your care using that 3-leg approach.
If you find a therapist you like but they are not in your state or close enough to see in person, reach out anyway. All therapists have telehealth services due to covid.