We provide peer support and a comfortable, non-clinical environment for people experiencing mental health distress.
Key points
- Safe Haven is a peer support program where people can find connection and understanding with peers who have had shared experiences
- The program provides a respectful, comforting and non-clinical environment available Friday to Sunday 2pm to 8pm each week
- Referrals can only be made through the Inner West Area Mental Health Service and the RMH Emergency Department
What we do
Safe Haven is a consumer peer-led program providing a comfortable and supportive environment for people experiencing mental health distress.
The program provides a safe, therapeutic space in a ‘non-threatening, non-clinical', and warm and respectful environment, offering support and linkages through contact with peer support workers and a mental health clinician.
Safe Haven is a space for those who might otherwise ‘fall through the cracks’.
Who can use our service
The service is available to consumers and carers within the Inner West Area Mental Health Service (IWAMHS), as well as those referred via the RMH Emergency Department.
Service use is defined by the Safe Haven Guest Mutuality Agreement.
When is the program available?
The program is currently available to guests from 2pm to 8pm Friday to Sunday.
What is peer support?
‘Peer support is a system of giving and receiving help founded on key principles of respect, shared responsibility, and mutual agreement of what is helpful. It is about understanding another’s situation empathically through the shared experience of emotional and psychological pain.
'When people find affiliation with others they feel are “like them”, they feel a connection. This connection or affiliation is a deep holistic understanding based on mutual experience where people are able to “be” with each other without the constraints of traditional (expert-patient) relationships.’
(Mead, Hilton & Curtis, 2001, p. 6)
Our values
- Lived and living experience
- Connection
- Confidentiality
- Approachability
- Vulnerability
- Belonging
- Respect
- Unfiltered conversation
- Reflection
- Compassion
- Collaboration
- Trust
- Healing and personal growth
- Cultural safety
- Choice
- Transparency