The power of the mind is a potent force when it can be harnessed, particularly when it comes to mental health.
Mental Health teams across Northern NSW Local Health District are experiencing positive results with their outreach in the community, offering practical ways to build resilience and connection for people in need of support.
An innovative program recently developed by the team is proving successful. Informed by Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), the program focuses on developing skills to help people manage intense emotions and behaviours.
The program is proving popular, with three clinics now offered in Lismore each week and two at Safe Haven at Tweed Heads.
Lismore-based Clinical Nurse Consultant – Towards Zero Suicides Timothy Dilli credited the program’s success to the fact it was co-designed with the Mental Health and Other Drug (MHAOD) Unit’s lived experience peers.
“The program was codesigned with lived experience staff who co-facilitate the program to enhance safety, peer connection, validation, and hope,” he said.
“This is a foundational factor in the successful outcomes associated with the program and why it is so valued by participants.”
The group was further developed using a partnership approach with internal MHAOD services and Medicare Mental Health (Open Minds), a partnered service commissioned by the Primary Health Network, Healthy North Coast.
Tweed’s Towards Zero Suicide Manager Amie Dutton said the program aimed to support people experiencing suicidality and other mental health diagnosis by giving them the practical tools and strategies to self-manage their emotions and improve their lives.
“The program uses skills-based group therapy, where we go back to the basics in learning how to improve emotional skills, distress tolerance and interpersonal relationships,” Amie said.
“It teaches all the basics that might have missed out on in childhood, supporting individual regulation. It’s all about connection. People just feel really isolated and this drives connection in an environment where people understand, and there’s no judgment.”
Operating in a small group setting of 10 to 15 people, the DBT-informed clinics run in the school term over a 10-week period. Participants must be referred to the program via existing Mental Health streams and are only for people aged 18 years and over.
The groups currently operate in Lismore and Tweed, with plans to expand to Grafton and potentially virtual delivery underway.
To find out more, email Safe Haven.