Horsham Headspace celebrated its fifth birthday on Monday with a morning tea and a celebration of all the organisation's achievements thus far.
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The centre launched in 2017 and has spent the past five years growing and finding new ways to help the region's youth find support.
From push up and swap challenges to virtual reality, the centre has continued launching new initiatives each year, according to youth outreach worker Cassandra Jeffery.
Ms Jeffery said Headspace was filling an important gap in the mental health sector in the Wimmera.
"There's not a lot of centres specifically for young people," Ms Jeffery said.
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"Young people can come in and have support, whether they're suffering from body image issues, self-harm or just struggling with school or their home life.
"Having that safe place to come to is important."
The Horsham centre covers a wide area, from Hopetoun and Birchip down to Edenhope, and even Stawell and Ararat, Ms Jeffery said.
"We do go out to the more rural areas as well... getting our face out and name out there, letting young people know who were are and how we can help support them," she said.
"It's a big area considering we're a very small organisation, but even though we're such a small team we service a lot of different schools."
New Horizons
One of the latest additions to the Horsham centre is its new virtual reality (VR) room, an initiative that has been in the works for a while, but launched earlier this year, Ms Jeffery said.
"It's a great program for young people who might struggle with one-on-one communication, they might feel more comfortable doing VR," she said.
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"It's a great icebreaker for young people to come into the space, especially if they're nervous coming in to speak to clinicians."
"We actually work with a company from Spain who developed the VR."
The VR technology has opened a lot of doors for the well being of young people in the region, Ms Jeffery said.
"It's an interesting opportunity for young people to learn mindfulness, relaxation skills and breathing control," she said, adding the skills can be used with mindfulness apps at home or at school.
"We've had about 20 or so young people come through the program, four or five have actually completed it but the feedback has been great."
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