By Dean Lawson

Horsham and Ararat are among latest Victorian centres the State Government has earmarked for mental-health and wellbeing-service development.

The government has included the rural cities among 21 locations for ‘Local Adult and Older Adult Mental Health and Wellbeing Services’.

The services are part of a new care model designed to provide Victorians with ‘mental-health support they need, as soon as they need it, close to home’.

Premier Daniel Andrews said the services would act as a ‘front door’ to a reformed mental-health system, providing early-intervention support for adults experiencing mental illness or psychological distress without needing a referral from a GP and before needing to attend a clinical hospital emergency department.

Mental-health advocates who last month identified disused Karkana centre on Horsham’s outskirts as a potential crisis and respite centre have been seeking clarification about what the government proposed for Horsham.

Group spokesman Gavin Morrow said it was pleasing the government had identified Horsham as an area of need.

“But we want to know in greater detail about what the service is and what it will provide,” Mr Morrow said.

The 21 additional service centres, which include regional cities of Shepparton, Mildura, Bendigo, Echuca, Orbost, Bairnsdale, Ballarat, Craigieburn, Warrnambool, Hamilton and Portland, are scheduled to open from mid-2023.

This builds on six service centres – Benalla, Latrobe Valley, Frankston, Brimbank, Whittlesea and Greater Geelong – preparing to start providing care under the scheme in 2022.

Mr Andrews said the government had made ‘huge’ inroads into reform of the state’s mental-health and wellbeing services.

He said work was underway on more than 85 percent of 74 report recommendations from a Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.

Mr Andrews and Mental Health Minister James Merlino turned the first sod on Victoria’s first Child and Family Centre – a key Royal Commission recommendation – last week.

“The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System was a watershed moment in our state’s history – and we’re not wasting a single moment delivering its commendations,” Mr Andrews said.

“We said we’d build a mental-health system from the ground up to deliver the care every Victorian deserves – and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

Mr Merlino: “These announcements will deliver new services that are sorely needed, with ‘front doors’ to the mental-health system to make sure nobody faces barriers to getting support, no matter where they live.”

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