St John of God Mental Wellbeing Service finds new home at old Masters site

The organisation's Raphael Service, which provides support for mums, dads and families experiencing anxiety, depression and other mental health issues during pregnancy and following childbirth, and its Mental Wellbeing Service which provides counselling for people aged 16 and over, relocated to the new facility last week.

The move gives the service space to expand, if they can find the staff.

"We have definitely seen numbers across the board increase and also the level of complexity and there's a lot of pressure for all mental health services throughout the whole spectrum of services," said SJOG Ballarat Raphael Services and Mental Wellbeing Services manager Danny Stone.

"Our challenge, like all services, like everyone at the moment, is staffing. We are busy trying to recruit more staff."

Mr Stone said many psychologists and mental health services had closed their books to new clients but St John of God was trying to keep theirs open.

"A lot of people have closed their books off but we are trying to keep our books open so we are really fixed on a briefer approach, a 10 session model to get people in, try and work with them, try to achieve some of their goals," he said.

Staff at the service include social workers and occupational therapists with mental health endorsements, and psychologists, and Mr Stone is trying to recruit more.

He said the new Wendouree facility allowed room for expansion, with 11 consulting rooms and more space in general than their previous location.

"We have the flexibility to grow with the demand, but we just can't get the staff to fill the vacancies we've got before we look at expanding," he said.

The move is part of a fresh start for the services, which previously operated from a smaller building on Webster Street in Ballarat Central.

"We have been providing mental health services to Ballarat for many, many years as part of our social outreach but (our previous) building was not purpose built, had many uses over the years, and was dark and dingy," Mr Stone said.

Keen to improve parking, accessibility and extra space so the services can expand, they identified the former Masters site as the ideal location.

"They are creating quite a hub there and we were really keen to be part of that, and it gives us the opportunity to make it easier for people to come and see us."

In the COVID age, the extra space of a larger facility also helps keep staff and patients safer.

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"From a COVID perspective, trying to maintain that square metre rule and making sure there's a bit of space around has been really difficult in the space we had so this new facility has been really built around that with bigger rooms and good airflow," Mr Stone said.

The mental health service joins Services Australia, Aurrum Childcare, Ballarat Doctors as well as a pilates studio, nail salon, gym, dentist and other tenants in the 40,000 square-metre site.

Mr Stone said as soon as the large sign went up on the Learmonth Road building last week, people started to come in and make inquiries.

Referrals to the service under a mental health care plan must come from a GP.

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