Mental health clinician Rachel Finch is part of a team of call takers that respond to people during times of crisis.
As the psychosocial effects of the Coronavirus Pandemic began to take hold, Rachel Finch and her colleagues in the Regional Mental Health Triage team noticed an increase in phone calls.
“The reality of isolation and what is involved with that really started to hit home for a lot of people,” she said.
“People were finding themselves with increased loneliness, increased feelings of desperation and subsequent suicidal thoughts as well.”
Since a state of emergency was declared in Victoria, Bendigo Health’s Mental Health Regional Triage (MHRT) service has had a 20 per cent increase in phone calls.
The MHRT offers telephone-based psychological assessment, support and access to mental
services across the Loddon Campaspe Southern Mallee region.
Calls range from people feeling the pressure of home schooling, loss of employment or worsening of pre-existing mental health issues.
“A lot of people want your opinion on if there depressed, going crazy or mentally unwell, but what I’m seeing is a lot of people that are having warranted, understandable feelings in the situation we’re facing,” she said.
Rachel recalled recently speaking to a woman who had used Bendigo Health’s mental health services many years ago. The woman had lost her job due to the Pandemic and felt she was becoming depressed again.
“Normalising a lot of her feelings was important. She was able to realise her feeling are commonplace and not an acute mental health disorder,” she said.
Rachel, who has 12 years’ experience as a mental health clinician, works across a number of mental health triage services at Bendigo Health and most of those roles interact with people at their lowest ebb.
“We certainly see people at their worst and their breaking point. A lot of the people we talk to are in terrible situations and we can’t change that. The biggest thing we can provide is hope,” she said.
“Hope that things can change and things will change, hope for the future.”
The work of the MHRT and Bendigo Health’s community-based mental health teams, who have been proactively discussing patients fears and anxieties during the pandemic, has helped reduce the number of inpatient admissions at the hospital the past three months.
For more information on how to access the MHRT, visit: https://www.bendigohealth.org.au/MentalHealthRegionalTriage/
