Help to improve wellbeing, develop strategies to cope and access emotional support as you need it.
Information, support and advice about managing debts and financial issues, both business and personal.
Assistance to understand your position and develop business plans for your future.
Eligibility
Call for a one off chat or get ongoing support
It’s natural to feel a range of emotions, such as stress, worry, anxiety or sadness.
These feelings are common during and after distressing events but if you are not coping or experiencing these emotions for several weeks, support is available.
Partners in Wellbeing is a free Wellbeing Coaching service for Victorians aged 16 and over.
A Wellbeing Coach can help you explore what is wrong and support you to gain clarity on your thoughts, feelings and experiences.
Through coaching, you can develop strategies to cope, so you can get things under control and get on with your life.
We also provide specialist support for Small Businesses which includes personal support, financial counselling and a business advisory service.
Finding the right person to talk to when you need it can be hard.Let us be your Partner in Wellbeing and take the first step to get things back on track.
Visit partnersinwellbeing.org.au or call 1300 375 330 to chat with our team and learn more.
We are available 9am – 10pm weekdays and 9am – 5pm weekends.
Interpreter and translation services are also available and you don’t need to have a permanent visa or medicare to access it.
Running your business can take a toll
Feeling responsible for others, such as staff and family who are involved in the business, can significantly add to your stress.
We offer professional advice, mental health support through wellbeing coaching to help manage business and personal issues.
Our free, confidential, one on one support can help to improve your financial, business and emotional wellbeing.
My name’s dan thorne i run orange elephant productions it’s a video communications and nav design business i’ve been going about six six
and a bit years now
and it’s basically just myself and my
kit the pandemic this year
really hit me straight between the eyes
i went from
having a couple of really good years and
looking like this was going to be yet
another one
when it got announced in government
announcements came through the end of
march or middle of march i the job i was
on basically
stopped and i lost about 50 grands worth
of work
in after a couple of days and the
ongoing
lockdowns and other bits and pieces that
happened most of the stuff that i’d been
pre-booked for for the year got
postponed or cancelled
initially you kind of go i’ll make this
work i’ll figure this out i’ll
find a way but gradually as
the weeks will run you i’ll come into
the office and there’ll be less emails
or more emails saying we’re cancelling
this or we’re
not sure whether this is going to be
going on you kind of lose contact with
your clients and it became harder and
harder to
almost get going um
because i i’m in a bubble on my own i
didn’t have anything
to um to communicate with i didn’t know
when the next job was going to come in
so personally i ended up though i
i was losing sleep over it and it took
me a number of days to realise i wasn’t
sleeping
i wasn’t exercising i was eating badly i
was just
basically becoming a grump and i
couldn’t go to my family and say
this is happening this is how i feel
because i felt like i had to be
in charge or the rock or the you know
basically in control of what was going
on and trying to make everything right
and i couldn’t
a well-being service would be a great
help
for sole traders or small business
companies or any company to be honest
but um particularly for me it would be i
mean there was a time that took me four
days to realize i wasn’t sleeping
uh four nights you know it was the
fourth night staring at the ceiling that
i suddenly realized that i’m not
doing what i normally do and i think if
i had a
if i could connect to a well-being
service or a professional service
it would probably take a step to contact
but knowing something was there would
definitely help
because you run out of ideas yourself
you think you’re doing the right thing
at the end of the day
you know if i needed help with my
accounts i’d go to an accountant
if i needed if i had a bad back i’d go
to a physio sort of thing so why not go
and seek
wellness out you know even if it’s just
a
quiet chat about something
Support to manage debt and financial issues
Qualified financial counsellors provide advice, information and support to manage debt and financial issues.
We can also provide information about financial support available for your business and provide assistance to access support.
Financial counsellors can help you with:
- Understanding the financial position and viability of your business
- Access to grants and support measures offered by state and federal governments and industry, such as banks
- Personal financial debts
- Understand options and priorities relating to debts
- Negotiations, including insurers, lenders and creditors, dispute resolution and repayment arrangements
- Information about insolvency processes
- Referrals to experts, including in accountancy, legal, insolvency, ATO and ombudsman.
For many small business owners the problems brought on by pandemic lockdowns can feel overwhelming and the continuing uncertainty makes it even harder to plan a way forward.
The most immediate challenges are often financial ones dealing with debts protecting business or family assets and accessing grants loans and other assistance.
Small business financial counsellors can help you work through these problems and decide what to do.
They can negotiate repayment arrangements or perhaps waivers with creditors.
They can help you to reconnect services that have been cut off orextend existing hardship programs.
They can discuss with you about what you want for the future and lend a listening ear.
At partners in wellbeing any victorian small business owner with less than 20 employees can access free small business financial counselling but the help doesn’t stop there.
We help you go beyond the urgent tasks.
Our business advisors can work with you to look at ways to improve your business develop alternative business plans, assess the future viability of your business.
Not only have you battled to keep your
business going through distressing
events like the covert 19 pandemic
you’ve also felt responsible for your
family and employees
so we also help you to find strategies
to manage
stress and anxiety and find a way to
improve your own well-being
and resilience these partners in
well-being supports are all linked
so you only have to tell your story once
we provide you with professional support
as much as you want or as little as you
want you decide
all our professionals are free
conversations are confidential
government funded to provide you
unbiased support
and without conflict we are here for you
for as long as you need it’s only
natural that you might sometimes feel
stressed
worried and overwhelmed act early
assistance is available there may be new
options for you to consider
call or email partners in wellbeing
Expert business advice to help address challenges and find opportunities
We offer a free and confidential Business Advisory Service providing professional and practical support for small business owners.
Qualified Expert Business Advisers from the Melbourne Innovation Centre, help to develop clear plans and actions to address critical challenges and opportunities within your business. Assistance is across a range of areas including, but not limited to:
- Marketing and Sales
- Digital Business
- Human Resource Management
- Financial Management
- Business Strategy
- Efficiency
- Risk Management
- Business Expansion
- Business Closure
I first contacted the helpline service when I realised that we were struggling big-time financially.
My business had gone into lockdown, and it was a new business.
We only opened in September 2019.
Through the helpline, I had weekly calls with a business advisor who was an industry specialist and together we’d work through the issues that were challenging my business and would come up with a strategy, how to best manage them.
And the main areas were marketing, communications, social media, and overall how to get my mindset right.
With the help of the helpline, I’ve been able to maintain hope and I’ve got a strategy.
I’ve definitely become more resilient and can see the business recovering.
If you’re a small business owner and struggling, it’s a no brainer.
There are people there that will understand you, support you, and it will really give you what you need to take your business forward.
Refer someone you know
Referral form – Neami
Local Government Areas: Moreland, Melbourne, Hume, Yarra, Hobsons Bay, Wyndham, Melton, Brimbank, Maribyrnong, Frankston, Kingston, Bayside, Monash, Glen Eira, Port Phillip, Stonnington, Mornington Peninsula
File size – 1.9 MB
Referral form – Each
Local Government Areas: Darebin, Boroondara, Banyule, Niliumbik, Greater Dandenong, Casey, Cardinia Shire, Whitehorse, Maroondah, Manningham, Monash, Knox, Yarra Ranges, Whittlesea
File size – 1.9 MB
Referral form – ASCO
Local Government Areas: Barwon South West, Gippsland, Grampians, Hume, Loddon Mallee
File size – 1.9 MB
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