Odyssey Victoria

28/02/2026

Thought for a Sunday...

27/02/2026

🌱 Growing more than vegetables — growing community 🌱
Residents at our Circuit Breaker Residential Rehabilitation program near Benalla have been busy building, sowing, nurturing, and harvesting their own vegetable gardens. The gardens have been so productive that they’ve grown more fresh produce than their kitchens can use.
Rather than letting anything go to waste, residents have been harvesting and boxing up the surplus to donate to Open Door Neighbourhood House Wangaratta. Over the past three months alone, more than 500 people have accessed their free food pantry, which provides regular access to fresh produce and pantry essentials.
The team at Open Door were extremely grateful for this generous donation of fresh, home‑grown vegetables, a wonderful example of how our residents are giving back and supporting the local community. 💚

25/02/2026

Resident and staff from our Circuit Breaker resi' rehab were happy to help out at the Moyhu Football Netball Club recently.

25/02/2026

We have Mental Health First Aid courses coming up in March and May. To find out more information go to: https://education.odyssey.org.au/mental-health-first-aid/

20/02/2026

At the Children's Centre in our Lower Plenty Resi' Rehab recently one of the children shouted, “Gabby’s dead!” about our yabby, Gabby. The adults in the Children’s Centre were very relieved to discover Gabby alive and well in her tank and having moulted her shell. They took the shell out and everyone enjoyed exploring it, especially the pincers which are usually avoided! They then did some research on the computer together about the moulting process and discovered that yabbies eat their old shell for calcium, so they popped it back into the tank for Gabby.

15/02/2026

An Australian-first study is prompting ‘cause for alarm’ over potential rising harms from the drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), reinforcing the need for prevention and harm-reduction strategies, as a GP expert calls for improved follow-up care.

The UNSW Sydney’s National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) study reveals that despite relatively low use compared to other illicit drugs such as M**A, co***ne and methamphetamine, GHB’s popularity is rising.

GHB-related deaths have increased 10-fold since 2013, the NDARC study reveals, while the number of hospitalisations more than tripled.

https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/rising-harm-from-party-drug-cause-for-alarm

Australia is seeing an ‘accelerating trend’ in harms from GHB, and GPs have a key role in follow-up care to reduce further risk.

12/02/2026

ADHD is common and is progressively being recognized as a disorder affecting people across the lifespan. ADHD is associated with multiple negative personal outcomes, including lower education, unemployment, poor marital outcomes, and reduced mortality. Substance use disorders are also common. Almost half of all individuals with ADHD have cannabis use disorder. Some studies have concluded that this abuse is a type of self-medication to correct an imbalance in the activity at endogenous cannabinoid receptors and dopamine neurons.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/psychopharmacology

Psychopharmacology is the study of substances that influence mental states. Such agents induce changes in mood, sensation, thinking, or behavior, and may be derived from plants or other natural sources or chemically synthesized in a laboratory. Psychopharmacology encompasses medications used in the....