Welcome To
A whole of community approach to youth mental health and wellbeing
Welcome to the GRODC community site! Your go-to for information on what we are doing, what we have coming up and how you can get involved.
‘As workers, being able to leverage our own humanness and empathy in fostering relationships, deeply listening, and being guided by the individual as well as their network - gives us a better understanding of what is happening for this person, and utilise resources beyond our own service.’ Tone, Peer Worker (Shepparton)
The latest...
Goulburn Region community partnership secures $2.5 million to transform youth mental health
Goulburn Region community partnership secures $2.5 million to transform youth mental health Young people in the Goulburn Region are set to access empowering and earlier intervention mental health support. The William Buckland Foundation, managed by Equity Trustees, has announced a $2.5 million, four-year investment in GRODC. This is a landmark moment — a growing recognition that communities, not systems alone, hold the answers to transforming youth mental health. For those new to GRODC, this is a whole-of-community
Roots taking hold
Roots Taking Hold GRODC is well and truly underway, and the momentum in the Goulburn Region is building in ways that feel both meaningful and lasting. We are now more than halfway through the Open Dialogue Foundation Training with our community partners, and what is emerging goes well beyond skills development. When clinicians, youth workers, peer workers, housing staff, family support workers and managers learn together, Open Dialogue becomes a shared way of responding — not something
Training kick-off!
After the first day of Open Dialogue training last week in Shepparton to support a whole-of-community response to youth mental health and wellbeing in the region, ODC received this incredible message from Dr Tejas Golhar, Child and Adolescent psychiatrist at Goulburn Valley Health.
His words are moving, energising and inspired so please read on.
“For the 13 years I’ve lived and worked in this region as a child and youth psychiatrist, I’ve dreamed of professionals across all levels reorganising ourselves into an accessible, well-connected relational safety-net for our region’s struggling youth.
Today, it began!
Thirty five professionals from across different services in our region – professionals from the wellbeing team at the only public high school in the region, from various NGOs supporting youth in challenging times, clinicians from headspace and from the publicly funded local area mental health and wellbeing service, and, quite excitingly, peers from lived and living experience workforce – all of us turned up to TOGETHER start a year-long training in Open Dialogue.
We all share a desire to help, but not infrequently feel the pressure to “do” or “say” something (at times prematurely), which can inadvertently undermine the young person’s agency (“you don’t get it!”).
This training promises to be the antidote: fostering a core competency in relating – i.e. compassionate empowering deep listening, and “being there” authentically – irrespective of our backgrounds. It’s about connecting all of us into a strong, responsive, interlacing fabric of support/safety-net with a golden thread while allowing the young person to own their trapeze act.
I’m hopeful this is the start of a positive culture change for youth mental health, and that we can engage more services and organizations as we progress in our endeavour.”
Our thoughts?
This work is powerful and it’s only just beginning.
Open Dialogue training can bring people together through a shared agenda for change – for young people, for families, for the whole community and for our mental health system.
How we started
GRODC is now seeking support so that we can take the next steps in our collaborative work to transform mental health and wellbeing for young people in our region. Check out our story so far. So much has been achieved in just a few years.
Measurement and evaluation workshop success!
Voicing our community partners, young people
