The women providing alternative mental health services for young girls

These are excerpts from an article written by Stephanie Ockhuysen for stuff news. You can read the full article here

An organisation set up to educate young girls on mental health is providing an alternative option for those struggling and waiting to be seen through clinical services.

“We realised that what we went through as teens, the same thing was happening in schools today, and we just really wanted to be able to do something about it in the community,” Belushi said.

Currently, vulnerable young people in Taranaki could be waiting for at least a year to receive therapy through the public health system for their mental illnesses.

“You can self refer, you can come through your GP," she said. “People have come through CAMHS (The Child & Adolescent Mental Health Team), they've come through school counsellors, they come through their aunty.”

Since starting, they have had more than 200 girls come through their doors to take part in one of the four programmes they offer, which include weekend and yoga retreats.

“We started off with one programme, which is called True Connections, and it's really the foundational programme that runs for 10 weeks, and it's all around tools to empower themselves with wellbeing,” Belushi said.

“We gather every Tuesday evening for around an hour and a half, and we just check in how the week has been, and we teach the girls around learning to celebrate themselves.”