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  • Youths in Victoria get mental health help easier

    Author: AAP

A Victorian woman who was shuffled between mental health services before landing on Orygen, says the group's new digs will make seeking help easier for youths.

A Victorian woman who was shuffled between youth mental health services as a teenager believes a new treatment hub will make it easier for others.

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At just 13, Nicole Juniper began suffering anxiety and depression.

She was shuffled between services before landing on Orygen, a youth mental health organisation, where she got help for two years.

"I've been pushed around from service-to-service because nobody's been able to take me for long enough," Ms Juniper said.

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"It is disgusting that there are people out there who need help and (have been) just unable to get it."

Orygen on Tuesday opened the doors to its new, $78 million Parkville treatment centre.

Now in her 20s and a volunteer for Orygen, Ms Juniper and about 140 other youths, including Dylan Langley, helped design the centre.

It has acute community-based care, psychological and psychosocial treatments, peer and family support programs and will also foster research and training into mental youth.

"There is nowhere for those in the middle, if you are not in the extreme ... This is a step in the right direction, and this creates that," Mr Langley said.

About 5000 youth are expected to attend the centre each year but executive director Professor Patrick McGorry said another 3000 would have to be turned away.

"We have a fantastic new building, it's like a new car (but) we need petrol," Prof McGorry said.

"We have some petrol but we haven't got enough petrol to look after all the young people in the western suburbs who need our help.

"I'm really hoping the royal commission will deliver the resources we need to really fulfil the potential of this facility."

A royal commission into mental health in Victoria is underway and is due to provide an interim report in November, before a final report in October 2020.

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