Mental health and wellbeing is one of the biggest issues facing people of all ages, but early next year Dubbo's youth will have a place to go and seek help.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Headspace, the National Youth Mental Health Foundation will open its doors at 23 Church Street, Dubbo in January and the service is expected to be an important one.
Construction is under way at the former business centre near the rotunda and should be completed by the end of November, with the final fit out at the end of December or early January.
Headspace operations manager for Dubbo and Bathurst, Peter Rohr, said he hoped the community would find them to be an invaluable service.
"We are really happy with where we are. It's a great location, it sits close to the rotunda and we hope it makes us a really accessible facility for young people," Mr Rohr said.
"The services we provide are free or low cost and in Dubbo we are looking at only having free services.
Mr Rohr said he expected teenagers and young adults to face similar challenges to those at Bathurst.
"Bathurst (Headspace) has been around since 2008," he said.
"We know how busy Bathurst is and we don't expect Dubbo will have any less demand. We're hoping a lot of young people will take advantage of our services.
"The sort of things people get from Headspace are services like psychologists, GPs, drug and alcohol workers and vocational education support.
"We are looking at making sure people stay connected to those parts of their life.
"We don't want them becoming disengaged from the community."
Helping establish headspace is a consortia including Western NSW Medicare Local, Dubbo City Council, Western NSW Local Health District, Break Thru People Solutions, Benevolent Society and CentaCare Wilcannia Forbes.
"I'd like to acknowledge the contributions and support of the consortia partners. Without their input it makes it difficult to ensure all the services are available," Mr Rohr said.
"We're ecstatic with how things are coming along. We always work on tight time frames to set things up and make sure things don't drag on."
Builder Nathan Kelleher from NJK Construction and Management said construction was going well and he was confident of completing the project on or ahead of schedule.