Anna is a woman who came to us carrying more than most systems are designed to hold.

Anna lives with the effects of severe trauma including family violence, sexual assault by a support worker and multiple mental health diagnoses. The abuse she was subjected to included her ex-partner using his car to run her over deliberately, causing significant injuries. Her daily life is shaped by anxiety, depression and trauma responses that affect her memory, speech, and ability to function consistently. She also carries the physical and neurological consequences of serious past injury. 

Anna reached out for help through our counselling service hoping for stability, safety, and support. But when we assessed her needs, it became clear that our current counselling program, delivered largely by volunteer counsellors, was not resourced or clinically appropriate for someone with this level of complexity. We made this decision carefully, with compassion and careful discussion with counselling supervisor, because we could not risk providing care that was not clinically sufficient. 

Anna can’t access free mental health services (symptoms not ‘severe’ enough to be eligible or too far away), and private psychology even with Medicare rebates is both out of reach financially and not holistic enough to meet her needs. So Anna sits in the gap. Too complex for low-intensity community counselling, not able to access government clinical mental health services, without the financial means to access private care – yet highly motivated to process what she has been through, rebuild her life and strengthen her relationships with her children. 

This is not a rare situation, and though it is increasingly common, it has not been solved. 

Doncare's new model for Holistic and Integrated Mental Health Care changes Anna’s pathway completely. She would be supported by an experienced clinical psychologist working within a trauma-informed, integrated service - where psychological care is connected directly to our wrap around support such as help with food and other needs, family violence recovery groups and mentoring, case management and advocacy support to help with the other stresses in her life. Instead of falling between services, she would move through a coordinated system of care designed around her needs.