Flourish Australia Dubbo helps people with complex mental health find connection

When someone like Anna finds a connection with a service provider, it's as though a light-bulb has gone off, and that's what the team at Flourish are here to assist with.

Sheree Masling, Acting Regional Manager, Western Far Western NSW, said the vast majority of clients came to Flourish Australia to find connection, whatever form it came in.

"Connection back to community, connection with family, just having a place of belonging, having a purpose," Ms Masling told the Daily Liberal.

"They often have the skills to do that independently but they might not have the ability. So they might not have the transport to get there, or the anxiety to do it on their own is too much.

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"Just having someone to walk beside them and to assist in that journey - I think we've seen a lot of really positive outcomes and feedback from people when that connection is established, they are able to maintain it and move forward independently."

Flourish Australia is a community mental health service and registered NDIS provider that helps people with a lived experience feel supported and meet their everyday challenges.

The service provides non-clinical psycho-social supports for people with NDIS funding - particularly those with complex mental health.

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Anna, an NDIS recipient from Peak Hill, has been using the Flourish Dubbo service for four years and said they were "really quite good".

Anna lives with rheumatoid arthritis and she is on the autism spectrum. She doesn't have a driving licence and the service helps her with a variety of every day tasks including taking her nine animals to the vet, taking her shopping, and helping her do cleaning and gardening.

"Making sure things are getting getting done so I can live independently in my own home," Anna told the Daily Liberal.

"That's the sort of thing [they help with] ... getting me out in the public so I'm not stuck at home."

She said she enjoyed the monthly social outings the service organised which took her and a group of participants to places like bowling, the Royal Flying Doctors Service visitor centre, for a picnic, fishing or to the movies.

Ms Masling said the service Flourish provides differs from person to person. It could be assistance accessing the community or attending appointments like hydrotherapy, depending on the needs of the participant.

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"A lot of it's based around doing with, not for, and building those skills. Supporting somebody to attend the doctors so they do maintain better mental health, better physical health," Ms Masling said.

The service works with clients mainly from 16 years to 65 years old and an even mix of males and females in Dubbo. Many have lost their self belief, having been out of the loop for too long, and need to build up their self worth.

Ms Masling said NDIS groups offering social support were lacking in Dubbo, and she would like to see more in the community.

"For a big town, there's not a lot of NDIS providers, so for things like socialisation groups, and opportunities for them to use their funding for those things, are a bit more limited," she said.

She said it was a like "a light switch" had been turned on when they helped a participant make a connection with somebody.

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"They might have been waiting for years to find a counsellor that they connect with or find an activity they really enjoy and seeing them find that and then find themselves because of that, and it is always coming back to that connection, whatever they're finding that connection with," Ms Masling said.

"Over the years we've had many conversations with people going 'I don't want another service provider, I've been in and out of services for years, nobody does what they say', and working through that with them and showing that services can be different and we will be here for you and we will walk this journey with you.

"Then seeing them come out that other side and being empowered ... is a really beautiful thing."

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She said a sense of belonging was the most important thing they could facilitate for their participants, and helped with feelings of helplessness and even suicide prevention.

"If people feel connected, they feel empowered. If they feel connected they feel that they belong. If they feel they belong I think we're already working against things like stigma and suicide prevention and things like that," she said.

When asked what gave her joy from her job, Lane Bermingham, Flourish Australia Team Coordinator for Western NSW NDIS, said: "Seeing how [our service] can help someone with their personal lives, how things can change and how much more positively they can embrace everything around them with that connection."

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