It must be heartbreaking as a parent to see your child’s mental health spiral and feel helpless to stop it. Sandy, a single mother, began to see changes in one of her teenage boys after the family had a rough couple of years.
“Their father and I separated in 2016, then he met someone and remarried and then he got cancer – they lost him in 2018. They started high school, then COVID happened – it really was the perfect storm,” Sandy said.
“They did the first lockdown ok, but I was working a lot and I noticed during the second lockdown that Jack* wasn’t going well. He said he was losing interest in school. I got him to an adolescent psychologist but they didn’t click.”
He started Year 9 and by the middle of Term 1 he was missing more and more days and he ended up missing most of the last two terms. A pediatrician diagnosed him with ADHD and potentially PTSD. Sandy says the following year things really fell apart.
“In Year 11 he went to three or four lessons and then he was done. He became more reclusive, depressed and angry.”
Like many parents, Sandy has found the struggle to find and access the right supports has been exhausting and frustrating.
“He had three referrals to child and mental health services, but we were told his condition wasn’t bad enough. The intake worker said they were overwhelmed after COVID and they weren’t interested – they said he wasn’t hurting anyone. The longer it went without him getting any support the worse it got.”
Jack’s crisis continued to worsen.
“He just sat last year – he wouldn’t go anywhere or see anyone.”
A private psychologist referred Sandy to the Youth Outreach Recovery Support (YORS) service last year.
Funded by the Victorian Government, YORS provides individualised psychosocial outreach support for young people 16-25 with significant mental health challenges.
By the time Jack’s YORS support worker Ellen started visiting, Jack was completely overwhelmed, paralysed and “just couldn’t deal with anything”.
Sandy said Ellen has been fantastic.
“She’s really sweet, gentle and approachable. Jack liked her straight away and felt comfortable. She was very clear and open with him about her expectations. She was gentle but cut to the chase and she really engaged with him. “
Ellen is a peer worker, which means she draws on her own lived experience of dealing with mental health challenges to mentor and empathise with the people she supports. Sandy says it has made a clear difference.
“He’s really spilling the beans with her. She has shared her own experiences and really broken it down into small steps for him what the recovery process would be, which is really helping.”
Ellen is coming out weekly to see Jack at home and Sandy said he is finally feeling confident.
“I think because she comes and faces him – sometimes he won’t have showered for five weeks, but she’s very accepting of him as he is and he feels more confident. He can see now that he needs to get out of his comfort zone in order to get back on track.”
Ellen suggested and recommended an Orygen residential program for Jack and he is on board.
“I don’t think he’d even contemplate going into something if it wasn’t for Ellen,” Sandy said. She’s talked him through residential stepping stones and what she can support him with.”
Sandy said, after all the struggle, the YORS support has made a difference for her too.
“Ellen has been such a great advocate – so knowledgeable about what’s out there. As a parent, she is a great support and she’s so calm and lovely.”
Fortunately, the Youth Outreach Recovery Support program was funded for another 12 months in the recent Victorian Budget. Mind hopes that longer funding cycles will be provided in the future, for this and other life changing programs, to provide more certainty of support for service users and better employment security for their committed staff like Ellen.
Find out more about Mind’s YORS services supporting young people in Wodonga, Traralgon and Rosanna.
*Jack's name has been changed for privacy reasons.