Are you or someone you know in need of URGENT SUPPORT?
If you require immediate help please call Police/Ambulance/Fire 000 (24 hours)
If you or someone in your care is in need of urgent mental health support, please contact Eastern Health Psychiatric Triage 1300 721 927 (24/7 triage line)
Crisis Support, Suicide Prevention (13 11 14) LifeLine Australia
Free Suicide Prevention Counselling (1300 651 251) SuicideLine Victoria
Phone Counselling Service (1800 55 1800) Kids Helpline
In an emergency:
In the event of a life threatening emergency, please dial 000
If you or someone in your care is in need of urgent mental health support or advice, please contact Eastern Health Psychiatric Triage on
1300 721 927
This service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Please follow the menu prompts to speak with a mental health clinician.
Eastern Health’s Infant Child & Youth – Mental Health and Wellbeing Service (ICY-MHWS) is one of 13 Specialist Mental Health and Wellbeing Services in Victoria that offer comprehensive and caring mental health and wellbeing services and support for infants, children, adolescents and young people up to 24 years of age, as well as their families and support networks. We see the family and support networks as integral to the recovery journey.
ICY-MHWS work with children and families presenting with complex and persistent mental health concerns which may not have responded to treatment by general community mental health supports. Typically, these would include several of the concerns listed below:
Common concerns for infants may include:
- Persistent feeding difficulties or poor weight gain
- Persistent crying, restlessness or difficulty being comforted
- Sleep problems that do not settle over time
- Unusual quietness or lack of interest in parents and surroundings
- Long and frequent temper tantrums
- Persistent clinginess
- Restricted play
Common concerns for children may include:
- Frequent and ongoing pattern of anger, irritability, arguing and defiance
- Difficulty controlling emotions
- Anxious, sad or depressed
- Impulsivity or overactivity
- Reluctance or refusal to attend school
- Problems with sleeping or eating
- Difficulty paying attention or concentrating
- Social, play and interpersonal difficulties
Common concerns for young people may include:
- Unusual experiences such as hearing voices, seeing strange things or things seeming different
- Changes in thinking, personality or behaviour that impact family, relationships, school or work
- Suicidal thoughts
- Self–harming behaviours
- Reluctance or refusal to attend school or work
- Moods that swing from really high to really low
- Thinking they have to do something over and over again to feel okay
- Feeling excessively anxious, worried, unhappy or shy
- Difficulty controlling emotions and impulses
- Trouble concentrating, thinking clearly or remembering things
- Loss of enjoyment or motivation
- Social and interpersonal difficulties
- Eating difficulties
- Sleeping difficulties
- Alcohol/Substance misuse
We provide a comprehensive range of clinical services for infants, children, young people, and their families and support networks including:
- Consultation and comprehensive mental health assessment – including where indicated – specialised assessments: Speech Pathology, Neuropsychology, Cognitive or Occupational Therapy
- Community clinical mental health care which may include:
- Short Term or Brief Intervention therapies
- Individual therapies
- Family therapies – including reflective family therapy sessions and parent sessions
- Family Based Treatment and Multi Family Therapy for the treatment of Anorexia Nervosa
- Psychiatrist review
- Group based therapies
- Psycho-education
- Clinical case management, including coordination of care across the service system
- Acute Adolescent Psychiatric Inpatient Care for young people aged 12–18 who require acute treatment in a hospital setting
- Support services which include:
- Cultural support for young Aboriginal people and their family/carer
- Young person and Family/Carer Peer support
- Avenues Education – a government school that works in partnership with Infant Child & Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing Services to provide targeted educational services for individual and groups of students experiencing social, emotional, and/or mental health difficulties in accessing education for referred young people.
- Secondary Consultation and Community Professional Education for community agencies and services working in the infant child and youth area
We provide services for infants, children, and young people 0 – 24 years and their families living in the following Local Government Areas:
- Whitehorse, Manningham, Maroondah, Knox, Yarra Ranges and parts of Monash –
http://www3.health.vic.gov.au/mentalhealthservices/index.htm
All referrals should be directed to the ICY-MHWS Access Team during these times:
9:00am -7:00pm Monday
9:00am -5:00 pm Tuesday to Friday
Phone: 1300 721 927 (Press Option 2)
ICY–MHWS is a specialist mental health service, and it is recommended that the following supports are considered before contacting us:
- visiting GP
- speaking with school welfare coordinator
- contacting community support services
When speaking with one of our Access clinicians regarding a referral, they will ask a number of questions to understand what mental health concerns are occurring, so as to determine the most appropriate mental health service. This may take up to 30 minutes and they may also request consent to obtain further information from other involved health, welfare or education professionals.
If ICY–MHWS is identified as the best service, an Initial Consultation appointment will be offered at an allocated clinic to the child/young person and their family.
There are times where we will offer alternative referral options outside of ICY-MHWS.
If ICY-MHWS is identified as the best service, you may be offered an appointment within one of our community or specialist teams:
- Community Teams
- Early Psychosis Teams
- Enhanced Eating Disorders Team
- Intensive Mobile Treatment Team
- Neurodevelopmental Assessment Team
- School Engagement Team, 0 – 11 years
- Short Term Assessment & Treatment Clinic
- Specialist Child Teams, 0 – 11 years
Most infants, children and young people accepted for assessment and care will receive an Initial Consultation (IC) with a clinician from one of our community based teams. This is a single session that aims to develop a greater understanding of the mental health concerns and to determine the most appropriate next steps.
Assessment, Individual Recovery Plans and Treatment
Further assessment is generally undertaken following the Initial Consultation appointment. This may involve several appointments with your allocated mental health clinician/clinical case manager, the child/young person, family/carer, depending on the age of the child or young person and presenting concerns. An Individual Recovery Plan will be developed collaboratively further to the assessment.
An Individual Recovery Plan is an agreement between the child/young person and their family/carer and the mental health clinician about the areas of concern, a shared understanding of these concerns, diagnosis, and the range of interventions agreed on to meet the goals of treatment.
The Individual Recovery Plan will be regularly reviewed with the child/young person and family/carer.
Our teams are multidisciplinary and include:
- Clinical Psychologists
- Mental Health Nurses
- Occupational Therapists
- Social Workers
- Psychiatrists
- Psychiatric Registrars
Additionally, children and young people and their families/carers may have contact with:
- Speech Pathologists
- Neuropsychologists
- Family, Carer and Youth Peer Workers
- ICY-MHWS Koori Mental Health Liaison Officer
- Youth Homeless Dual Diagnosis Senior Clinician
- Youth Justice Mental Health Clinician
- Teachers from Avenues Education, who work conjointly with ICY-MHWS to support children and young people’s connection with school or other educational providers
Child, youth and family participation
We have a vibrant lived experience workforce including youth and family carer peer workers.
We encourage children, young people, families/carers to let us know, through formal and informal means, what is important to them about using our service and to identify gaps and areas of improvement in service delivery.
Surveys of experience of care are routinely undertaken and we hold periodic focus groups on service delivery.
If you would like to know more, or to participate in the planning, delivery and evaluation of services to ICY-MHWS please contact our ICY-MHWS Lived Experience Manager on 9895 4060.
Secondary consultation and community education for partner agencies
Secondary Consultations:
ICY-MHWS recognises that consultation with external agencies is a core part of the services we provide. Secondary consultation aims to build the skills, knowledge, confidence and capacity for external agencies to work with children and young people experiencing mental health problems. To support this, ICY-MHWS offer regular, contracted and single secondary consultations to a range of agencies across the Eastern Metropolitan Region.
Requests to establish a secondary consultation can be made by contacting the ICY-MHWS Access Team on 1300 721 927 (Option 2).
Community Professional Education Seminars:
ICY-MHWS regularly presents Community Professional Education Seminars to workers in the education, health and welfare sectors in order to increase their capacity to respond to and support infants, children and young people experiencing mental health difficulties.
A small number of bespoke seminars for individual agencies in the Eastern Metropolitan Region can also be organised on a range of mental health topics, pending resource availability.
All Seminars have a small fee attached.
For a copy of the Community Seminar Program or, for further information please email: [email protected]
Youth Mental Health First Aid training (YMHFA)
YMHFA is a 2-day training offered by ICY-MHWS for professionals working with youth in the Eastern Metropolitan Region and provides participants with:
- the skills in recognising the signs and symptoms of mental health problems in children, adolescents and young adults
- knowledge of the possible risk factors for these mental health problems
- awareness of the evidenced based medical, psychological and alternative treatments available
- skills in how to give appropriate initial help and support someone experiencing a mental health problem
- skills in how to take appropriate action if a crisis situation arises involving suicidal behaviour, panic attack, stress reaction to trauma, overdose or threatening psychotic behaviour.
On completion of the training, participants will be accredited Youth Mental Health First Aiders.
There is a charge of $300 per 2-day course.
Please email all enquiries to: [email protected]