A Lithgow mental health service will be celebrating its 110th birthday on Friday, July 28, with a high tea.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Tea is appropriate as supposedly Aftercare, the oldest mental health organisation in Australia, all started with a ‘cuppa’.
Emily Paterson, who lived across the road from Gladesville Mental Hospital in Sydney, would invite residents of the hospital over for tea. In her conversations with the hospital’s patients she became aware of the struggles they faced after leaving the institution such as finding housing, work and company.
110 years later Aftercare offers services in fifty locations around Australia, including Lithgow where Aftercare’s doors opened in 2008.
“We work in mental health and disability. Generally, we provide one-on-one peer support and mentoring. We work on the client’s goals with them and work to achieve them,” Lithgow support worker Michael Paris said.
Mr Paris said in the next decades the mental health sector will keep evolving.
“How people think about mental health has changed dramatically. There's a lot more recognition now.”
“I think funding will change. Hopefully there will be more and it will have its own funding rather than being lumped in with the NDIS.”
Clients of Aftercare and other services in Lithgow are invited to the high tea on July 28 between 1-3pm.