Seasons greetings from BaMH!

Clinic close dates over Christmas and New Year, and what’s happening in 2025.

As the holiday season approaches, we want to extend our heartfelt gratitude for trusting us to support you on your healthcare journey.

 

Since opening our doors in late June, we are proud to have been able to bring neuroscience-informed mental healthcare and precision diagnostics to our Sunshine Coast communities, and we look forward to expanding the range of ways we can support you in 2025. 

 

We appreciate that the Christmas and New Year period can be difficult for many people, and we encourage you to get in touch if you are struggling. While our clinic will briefly close over this period (dates below), there are a number of organisations that can provide support during this time. This list can be found at the bottom of this email, and the bottom of each page on our website.

 

We also encourage you to get in touch with our team if you would like to discuss options for support that will be available over the holiday period, and to make appointments to reconnect in the new year.

Introducing our new ADHD Peer Support Group

To further support our clients, we’re making a new support option available before Christmas. Our ADHD Skills and Support Group Program is a weekly program for adults who have been diagnosed with ADHD and are seeking support and to develop skills that can help to manage life with the condition. There’s no commitment required – just join whenever you are able! 

  • When: Each Thursday, commencing 12th December. No groups between 20th Dec and 6th January. Recommencing Thurs 9th January.
  • Time: 11am – 12pm 
  • Where: BaMH Sunshine Coast

Clinic close dates

Please note that our clinic will be closed over the Christmas/New Year break from 4pm on Friday, December 20th 2024. We will reopen on Monday, January 6th 2025. 

Where to find support over the holidays

If you are having an emergency, dial 000.

If you are feeling distressed or need support over the holiday period, the below services are available 24 hours a day.

Lifeline

  • Ph: 13 11 14
  • 24/7 phone and online chat

Beyond Blue

  • Ph: 1300 22 4636
  • 24/7 support service for counselling. Phone, text and online chat

13YARN (13 92 76)

  • Mental Health for First Nations and Indigenous Australians

1300 MH CALL (1300 642 255)

  • Support, advice and referral, mental health emergency

Suicide callback service

  • Ph: 1300 659 467
  • 24/7 counselling to people affected by suicide and online chat 

What’s coming in 2025

We’re excited to expand our service offerings in 2025 to provide additional pathways of care and support.

Some of the initiatives planned for next year include: 

  • New group programs, including Lifestyle Medicine and Eating Disorder recovery
  • Expanding our Brain Stimulation Clinic to offer new approaches for treatment-resistant depression, post-stroke recovery, and autism
  • New staff members will be joining us to help provide greater levels of support and service availability

If we can assist you with anything prior to the holiday break, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

From all of us here at Brain & Mind Hub Sunshine Coast, we wish you and your loved ones a joyful holiday season and a bright, fulfilling New Year.

Childhood stress, trauma and synapse loss

A new book release from Professor (Emeritus) Maxwell Bennett AO, Chair of TBMH Board of Directors, shows how our children are in jeopardy of growing up with mental illness and the consequences of this for their adult lives.

Max Bennett is an internationally-recognised expert in the field of neuroscience, having authored over 300 papers concerned with research on synaptic connections between nerve cells in the brain, and has written 14 books on synapses as well as on the philosophy of mind and brain.

His new book begins with the story of a child growing up in Australia, and this narrative forms the backbone of the book. Through subsequent chapters, the story of his development reveals to the reader just how much the environment we grow up in as children determines our capacity to enjoy life as we mature.

“I wrote this book in order to show how our children are in jeopardy of growing up with mental illness and the consequences of this for their adult lives. This can also help parents to understand and appreciate the extent of their responsibilities for the future happiness of their children.”

Prof Bennett’s extensive experience and credentials in this field include tenure as President of the Australian Neuroscience Society as well as of the International Society for Autonomic Neuroscience, the leading world group for the study of the nervous system associated with our emotional life.

Over the past 20 years he has driven the initiation and establishment of Institutes and foundations devoted to achieving the best outcomes in mental health for the Australian community. These include the Brain & Mind Research Institute (now Centre) at Sydney University as well as the Mind & Neuroscience Thompson Institute (now Thompson Institute) at the University of the Sunshine Coast.

He has brought synergy to the areas of brain and mind research and between disciplines in psychiatry, neurology and neuroscience, ensuring that they are embedded in outreach programs to the community.

“One of the key takeaways I hope to impart with this book is underscoring the extent to which our organisations, TBMH and BaMH, are equipped with the knowledge and methodology to ameliorate mental illness of both children and adults.”

Our team of mental health specialists is dedicated to the relentless pursuit of excellence in mental healthcare and implementing the latest research and understanding into our approaches to deliver world-leading care for those who seek support.