Health in Mind psychologists jumping from planes to help Orange's current 'mental health crisis'

New to Orange, two psychology graduates, Isabel Harris and Erin Cobcroft, will literally jump from planes on April 29, with the target of growing access to external mental health services across the Central West.

Commencing in January as provisional psychologists, Health in Mind has rallied with Orange Pie Company to meet fundraising goals for the Black Dog Institute.

But, it's not just because jumping from planes seems pretty cool or because pies are pretty great to eat, it's because reports of worsening mental health across Australia over the past year is sitting at 78 per cent - and support services in the west say there's a genuine struggle to meet the current industry pressures.

"We really do have a mental health crisis and we don't have enough phycologists to meet the demand for people who are wanting and needing appointments," Health in Mind's practice manager, Isabel Taberner said.

"There's been massive waiting lists for two years now with people having to wait months and months to see someone and while it's not typically uncommon for specialists to have wait times like that, we're talking about mental health here."

Setting fundraising goals of $5000 and $10,000 a piece, the provisional specialists will represent Health in Mind on behalf of the practice, representing Orange in the Black Dog Institute's CEO Skydive for Mental Health.

With the 'taboo' around mental health disorders progressively lessening, more people are crawling out of the woodwork for support - which Miss Taberner says the practice has seen a boom in people reaching out for professional help, particularly since the dawn of COVID.

"Definitely we've seen an increase in referrals, especially with children - the amount of anxiety concerns over the last two to three years has really, really increased," she said.

"Maybe the increase is the amount of parents saying 'I should get my child in to see someone', but there's been so much change and fear of the unknown happening for our little people over the last of couple years - from no school, working situations changing for parents and relationship breakdowns or other contributing factors with family units - it's created a lot of new issues which we keep seeing emerge."

With these rising demands and mental health such a serious area of concern - particularly when untreated - the practice owner and psychologist herself, Belinda Harris saw the need for more research and access to online services.

"[Belinda's] whole heart is about bringing more psychologists back into the Central West, which is why she reached out and employed three provisional psychologists to drive more mental health services available here locally," Miss Taberner said.

"[Fundraising] is also an opportunity to be able to support a larger organisation that can provide other sources of support, because there's only many hours in the day and we need to keep our specialists healthy, too.

"They may only see five people in one day, but if we can raise funds to contribute to organisations like Black Dog Institute to grow and then provide more online services - as well as opening up a more diverse range of services for people to access - it will never take away from the impact of physically sitting in a room with a psychologist, but it could be a really healthy stepping stone."

With skydiving a fairly scary feat, the practice says this fear is nothing compared to the daily challenges people with mental illness face.

Donate to Miss Harris and Miss Cobcroft's big jumps to be a part of the cause, or purchase a pie by April 29 by contacting the Orange Pie Company via Facebook or emailing Health in Mind at admin@himorange.com.au.

Pies are set at $30 with every $10 for each purchase going directly to the Black Dog Institute in support of mental health research and treatment.

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