NT mental health funding boost welcomed by mother who lost daughter to suicide
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Loading... - Mary Campbell
- 25 Mar 2022
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The toughest days for Lidia Di Lembo remain her daughter's birthday, and the day she lost her to suicide.
"I think about what she would have been like at this age, and all you can do is wonder," she said.
"You can't directly experience it because she's not here."
In August 2017, Ms Di Lembo's 19-year-old daughter Sabrina took her own life after experiencing anxiety in the lead up to her university exams.
"It's a form of trauma that you go through when you lose someone to suicide," Ms Di Lembo said.
"It's an immeasurable loss, it is really difficult to describe the intense pain and suffering that you go through."
When it happened, Ms Di Lembo struggled to find a local support group in Darwin to lean on, which inspired her to set up her own.
"There was no support service for me and that's why I set up a bereavement by suicide support group," she said.
"We've been operating now for three years or so and organisations like Sabrina's Reach, we're not really funded by anyone, we do what we do just through fundraising."
Expanding support for people impacted by suicide in the Northern Territory is part of a $43 million funding investment into mental health announced by the federal and NT governments this week.
Ms Di Lembo wants people with a lived experience of mental illness involved in determining how it's spent, and to improve how services reach those in need.
"We don't have the model right when it comes to young people", she said.
"We can't keep doing the same old stuff, we need to involve people meaningfully and in a transparent manner that have lived experience of mental illness, suicidal ideation or who are bereaved by suicide in implementing these initiatives."
Long wait lists as demand rises
The number of young people seeking mental health support in the Northern Territory has increased during the pandemic.
Jade Gooding, a clinical psychologist and the executive manager of mental health at Anglicare NT, said it can sometimes take up to three months to get an appointment with a psychologist if the referral isn't urgent.
"That's a real concern for us and obviously it's a huge concern for young people and their families," she said.
"We know that young people, particularly when they need support and they try and link in, that's when they need to be engaged, they need support straight away."
Ms Gooding said the age of children being referred to Headspace centres, which are run by Anglicare, was getting younger, and their needs more complex.
"We are getting referrals from families of 6-, 7-, 8-year-olds, who are experiencing quite significant depressive symptoms, they're also experiencing anxiety," she said. Read More...
