When Jess Rolevink first experienced unexplainable feelings of distress as a teenager in the 1990s, she had no-one to turn to.
"I started really struggling with a lot of feelings of depression and anxiety, and really just feeling like I wasn't good enough," the now 47-year-old said.
"So many times, I turned up to hospitals and GPs, wanting answers to why I felt so bad about myself, and why am I feeling this intense feeling of depression."
But Ms Rolevink said she did not get the answers she was looking for in emergency departments, and instead felt "judged".
She spent much of her twenties and thirties battling mental illness.
"I had a lot of shame associated with it, and not a lot of options to turn to," Ms Rolevink said.
"For me it was really at the crisis point where I just didn't want to live anymore, and I had two young daughters, and something had to change."
Something did change, with the right support, and Ms Rolevink now spends her time working as a peer-practitioner, using her own life experience to support others who are struggling.
She is one of a group who will be staffing a new, free drop-in Safe Haven service at Salisbury, in Adelaide's northern suburbs.
Finding a 'Safe Haven'
Mental health patients experiencing a crisis do not have many after-hours options in South Australia.
Psychological and psychiatric support can be difficult to access, and expensive.
That means mental health patients end up in public hospital emergency departments, because there is nowhere else for them to go.
The Safe Haven service – funded by SA Health and the Adelaide Primary Health Network — is designed to direct some of those people away from acute health services.
"People can just walk in," Ms Rolevink said.
"There's no wait lists, people can come in sit down, talk to a peer practitioner and be heard and be pointed in the right direction."
The site will be open on Thursday and Friday evenings to begin with, expanding to four nights per week from February.
Northern Adelaide Local Health Network mental health division director of allied health and community Shaun Sweeney said the demand for mental health services had intensified during the pandemic.
"Accessing mental health services more broadly has been a bit more of a challenge … [because] of course people haven't been able to get out to the various locations," he said.
"Social isolation has absolutely ramped up, because people haven't been able to be in contact with friends and family as much."
He said drug and alcohol use had also increased.
"All of our hospitals are under pressure, which is why it's really important that we have good community-based service," Mr Sweeney said.
Mr Sweeney said he wanted to see the South Australian government fund a minimum of three free drop-in mental health services in Adelaide's northern suburbs, which has particular need due to higher levels of socio-economic disadvantage and larger refugee populations.
Hopes to expand
High numbers of emergency mental health presentations contribute to issues like ambulance ramping and emergency department overcrowding.
Health Minister Chris Picton said the state government would consider funding more similar drop-in mental health services, if the Salisbury site proved successful.
"We are hoping that this proof of concept really takes off, and we can start to see the benefits and hopefully expand this in the future as well," he said.
"I think that there's confidence that this will be successful, but that depends on us getting the word out.
"Mental health is a key contributor in terms of some of the … problems that we face in our health system, because we don't have enough resources at our acute end or at the other more community-end of the system.
"We need alternatives other than having to go to the emergency department when people need help. We need non-clinical spaces.
"The more that we can help people stay out of that acute system the better off they'll be."
Salisbury Mayor Gillian Aldridge welcomed the new service, which she said would help to fill a huge gap in the area.
"There's no question that our multicultural community has many more needs, if they've come from [trauma] … I could name some of them, Afghanistan … Syria … Bhutan," she said.
"Our young people, and our people with trauma, are so important and need to be listened to.
"Wouldn't it be great to have one in every council area.
"It's certainly needed, and don't forget the little country towns that need it too."
