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Social & Emotional Health Branch
Branch description
The Social and Emotional Health Branch (SEHB) social health team provides
an extensive range of counselling and support services to clients confronting
an increasingly complex range of social issues.
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Services include
The SEHB recently
implemented a new structure for its service, as recommended in the review
of the service undertaken in 2002 by Dr Pam Nathan.
The new structure is built around the comprehensive Social Health team
model.
Social Health teams in Aboriginal community-controlled health services
are multiskilled and multidisciplined teams that provide a range of social
health services, including mental health, substance use, grief and loss,
and family and welfare support.
These may address issues in the area of depression, anger management (including
responses to racism and personality issues) , suicidal thoughts, loneliness
(isolation from country, friendship and family), financial and budgeting,
assisting youth to return to school and specialist support from a psychiatrist.
Recently we have seen an increase in bush clients presenting for social
support.
These clients have often relocated to town due to illness (chronic diseases)
and experience difficulties adjusting to a new lifestyle and its demands.
The SEHB provides a range of support, from counselling to assisting with
budgeting and general orientation into the demands of town life.
Clients also present in crisis with family pressures from
extended families, the result overcrowded accommodation and lack of support
for these individuals.
Grief and loss (cultural obligation) issues increase pressure for individuals
to provide for others when they are surviving on a bare minimum with their
own immediate family.
Although a majority of clients will present to the clinic with domestic
violence issues, which require medical attention, SEHB sees individuals
to provide counselling and social support.
This can include strategies to deal with the issue. These
types of issues are daily events in clients "lives";
Often people present the service in crisis, unsure of how to address such
issues in the framework of modern expectations of daily living.
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