Help closer to hand

By Kath Gannaway
THE Volunteer Clinic – Yarra Valley Practitioner Project established following the bushfires in February has extended its service to Healesville.
Natural therapist Karen Dickson started the clinic, gathering together more than 30 practitioners to provide physical, emotional and other support including massage, kinesiology, clinical hypnotherapy, positive psychology and counselling.
The service had run out of Cameron House at Yarra Glen as well as providing services to local schools including Yarra Glen, Chum Creek and Healesville High School.
Ms Dickson said there was an identified need in the Healesville communities to provide the same service that is proving effective to the bushfire-affected communities in surrounding Yarra Glen.
Working in partnership with Yarra Valley Community Health Service, Ms Dickson and her army of practitioners, including as many as 15 people providing administrative support, are looking to expand the help they are so effectively delivering.
Ms Dickson said the criteria, that the services are available to people affected by the bushfires, is very broad.
“Some people will say they were not affected on the night, but everybody in these communities was affected,” she said.
“There are people who come in because they need to do something, and they will keep coming back and move on to addressing all sorts of things in their life,” she said.
The service is also keen to work with business people who have had their lives turned upside down by the February bushfires, but are now also facing the coming summer as an unknown quantity.
Ms Dickson said the client base was slowly building in Healesville.
“I know that there are many people who could benefit from the services and we are very keen to let people know we are here for them,” she said.
The Volunteer Clinic – Yarra Valley Practitioner Project is working out of the Yarra Valley Community Health Service in Healesville’s East End.
For details or to book with a practitioner phone volunteer booking co-ordinator Barbara Dickson on 9730 1915.