Judith’s story – a home away from home for carers

Judith Wright, a long-time carer from Creswick in central-west Victoria, says being at the Grampians Mental Health and Wellbeing Connect centre is so warm that it feels like a second home.

“It is so comfortable; it’s like going into your own loungeroom,” the 72-year-old says. “I come into the centre and do arts and crafts each Wednesday with my friend Leanne and her son Kalvin… it’s just so easy to be there. There are very few places where you feel welcome like that.”

Grampians Mental Health and Wellbeing Connect is a support service for carers and family members of people with mental health and/or substance abuse issues. It is funded by the Victorian Government and provides individual and group based support, tailored information, advocacy, counselling, and access to brokerage funds through Tandem’s Carer Support Fund. 

Judith has lived a remarkable life having been a carer for more than 20 years. This has included stints caring for her son, her four grandchildren, as well as her mother, father and uncle in the late stages of their respective lives. Sadly, these caring experiences have included time supporting loved ones experiencing alcohol, drug, and mental health challenges.

Judith’s four grandchildren are of First Nations descent. Her youngest granddaughter was placed in another home away from her siblings, which led to years of unsuccessful appeals by Judith and her family to reunite the four siblings – a trauma that led to her youngest granddaughter developing mental health challenges, and left Judith herself feeling “mentally broken”.

“You don’t stop long enough to think about it because you are so busy running around, but recently it occurred to me that 20 years of my life have just gone by,” Judith said.

“My husband and I have not had a retirement together because we were so busy – we never had time just for us. We’ve had a good life, but it just occurred to me that I’ve got really old.”

Judith has never had support to help her cope with her carer load, because no such supports have existed. Grampians Mental Health and Wellbeing Connect has only been operational for a year, but Judith says it has been an instant game-changer.

Staff at the service have not only provided Judith with warm emotional wellbeing support, they have also helped her to access programs and financial assistance schemes designed to support carers and pensioners. This has included access to petrol vouchers, which have made the two-hour roundtrip doctor visits from Creswick to Ararat less stressful and more affordable.

Judith says the best aspect of the service model is the fact that it is staffed by people with a lived or living experience of supporting someone with mental health and/or substance use challenges.

“Anyone who hasn’t cared for someone or dealt with the system doesn’t have an understanding of what that does to your life, so to have them [staff with a lived experience] there is really quite good. You can’t explain to people what caring is like,” she said.