Push for more mental health services to be available in Cherrybrook
The rising rates of Mental Health and how we can help
The suburb of Cherrybrook is a family town nestled in a leafy green area between Castle Hill and Dural, located in North West Sydney. Cherrybrook is an ideal place for kids and families as there are a lot of facilities such as multiple schools, wide range of parks, and sports venues available to partake in. It has been a great suburb for kids to grow up in as it offers a range of facilities but does lack one very important one, mental health services.
I myself have lived in Cherrybrook for the past 7 years and have watched everything in Cherrybrook around me grow and evolve with me. Whether that be from Shopping centre renovations, to a new train station being built, Cherrybrook continues to grow to keep up with the pace of it’s residents. One very important thing I have noticed Cherrybrook is lacking is the amount of mental health facilities/services available in the area. As someone who has dealt with mental health throughout their entire high school life, I think that this is a definite and urgent need in the Cherrybrook Community as kids struggle every day and not every single child feels comfortable enough to want to come forward to their parents/friends about it. Teens in highschool especially need mental health support at this age as it shapes who they become as an adult and can benefit their life in the future if they deal with their problems now.
Mental Health presents itself in a range of different forms such as Anxiety, Depression, OCD, ADHD, PTSD, phobia, behavioural difficulties and many more. It is how our emotional and physical wellbeing presents itself which is at sometimes out of our control. Our mental wellbeing is one of the most important things that we make sure is looked after every day as these mental health issues can have a big impact on an individual’s life which in result can lead them to becoming isolating from family and friends, getting behind in work and an overall lack of motivation to do anything including living at some extreme points. Individuals who suffer from mental health issues tend to be both male and female, but males tend to hide it more as they feel they have to put on a tough and strong façade. The reason being that Cherrybrook needs more therapists locally is to give those who don’t want to tell anyone close to them about their problems, an opportunity to come forward and discreetly talk about their issues without feeling embarrassed.
Whilst acknowledging the fact that every school in the Cherrybrook region does serve an attempt to acknowledge kids’ mental wellbeing by offering counselling at all schools, but from personal experience I can definitely say that this counselling is very unprofessional and does not help nor go through the correct procedures they should when dealing with kids mental health issues. Whilst doing some brief research, I came across a website that confirmed my concerns. In this Health Share website, you will see that all the psychologists listed available are only located in Pennant Hills. This causes problems for kids who would like to quietly attend therapy after school without their parents knowing and without having to rely on their parents to drive them if they have work are aren’t available to take them. Whilst also pushing for more mental health facilities to be made available, they should also be offered at a lower price or even at a free of cost for those kids who are too scared to tell their parents, giving them the opportunity to get help.
Mental health is not only common in teenagers but also in Adults and younger kids as well. By having a wide range of mental health facilities available in Cherrybrook it would encourage more people to come forward to speak about their mental health and actually be motivated to get up and walk down to the shops knowing that they can get help that is easily accessible and local. Since there are an array of schools in Cherrybrook, statistics have shown that mental health issues in school students have drastically increased since 2013 with the introduction of technology and cyberbullying. Having these facilities available would be able to cover the mass of individuals that need help without them feeling like they have no other option but the wrong way out and could potentially save many precious lives.
The locals of the Cherrybrook community deserve to be looked after and reserve the right to have such facilities available local to them. Mental health is apparent everywhere, and we can do our best to help by taking these small steps to offering more mental health services to the community, keeping everyone safe and happy. It’s everyone’s right no matter what age, gender or race to be able to have access to affordable and local mental health care available to them aiding them through life when needed.
