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Extract from the Bendigo Advertiser article 10/3/23
An important youth mental health service has been serving regional young people in the wake of lockdowns, but the service is set to help even more this year.
Keep in Touch, or KIT, is a mobile mental health service for young people aged 14 to 18 in the Loddon Campaspe region is reminding locals that help is available, following a post-COVID relaunch in Bendigo on Thursday.
The KIT van, an Anglicare service originally created by local young people with a passion for youth wellbeing, travels to areas where dedicated mental health support is often not available, and mining company Agnico Eagle has invested in the service until mid-2024 while the demand for support services in Victoria remains at critical levels.
The funding from Agnico Eagle will give schools, community groups and local event organisers access to the free mobile service that seeks to promote positive mental health knowledge in schools and other community groups.
Anglicare Victoria youth program and community services manager Michael Oerlemans said while there were mental health services in the region, the purpose of KIT was to “open up a conversation between young people about mental health and how they can access services”.
“It’s also about how they can support one another and really just talking about mental health because often mental health concerns, particularly with young people and adolescents, they keep them to themselves and we don’t see what’s going on until it’s that kind of pointy end of them for needing support,” Mr Oerlemans said.
Written by Lucy Williams.
