A new door-to-door mental health and wellbeing survey has found that one-third of householders were experiencing high or very high psychological distress in Ipswich.
The Assisting Communities through Direct Connection (ACDC) Project spoke with and offered information to nearly 500 householders in North and West Ipswich, 243 of whom then completed a survey of their experiences with mental health and accessing support.
The report of the survey found that 22.9% of householders were experiencing high psychological distress and 9% were experiencing very high levels of distress, compared to the national average of 9.3% and 4.2% respectively.
Bill Gye, CEO of Community Mental Health Australia (CMHA), who manages the ACDC Project, says the findings for Ipswich give an important insight into the community and the issues identified should be addressed.
“It is significant that the measured distress levels are quite a bit higher than the national average. This is further supported by the 39% of householders who reported living with a mental health issue,” said Mr Gye.
A very high percentage of householders identified that their community was facing significant challenges such as alcohol and other drugs, financial stress, and unemployment, with the top individual concerns identified as COVID, climate change and financial stress.
Over one-third of householders said that they would benefit from further mental health support, with an equal preference for speaking with a peer support worker or mental health professional.
People Connectors from Stride Mental Health went door to door between September and December 2021. Tristan Brownson, from Stride and Line Manager for the ACDC Project in Ipswich, says that people need someone to check in on them now more than ever.
“One of the most valuable parts of this project was connecting with householders and connecting them with the supports they need. We were able to connect with householders of varying ages, genders, backgrounds, and socio-economic status. This gave us a broad cross-section of feedback around what householders believe they and their communities require.”
People Connectors spoke with householders about their mental health and wellbeing and distributed information about the free support services available in their area.
The ACDC Project is being implemented in communities across all states and territories of Australia to improve wellbeing and collect important data with the assistance of the Centre for Social Impact.
The final report of the ACDC Project, along with recommendations for how the sector can
better meet the needs of communities, is scheduled to be released in late 2022.
The ACDC Project is funded by the Department of Social Services (DSS).
For the full findings and community report from the Ipswich area CLICK HERE.
For more information about the ACDC Project go to www.acdc.org.au
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