Tribune’s note

Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Emma McBride announced two new Perinatal Mental Health Centres for Melbourne on 17 June, placing them in the Hume and Casey local government areas — covering the city's North West and South East outer suburban corridors [TA-260617-health-0b1526089cd4]. Both centres will be operated by Gidget Foundation Australia and fully funded by the Australian Government, providing free psychological support to new and expectant parents who attend with a GP referral and a mental health care plan [TA-260617-health-0b1526089cd4].

The announcement is part of a $39.2 million national investment to build a network of 20 Perinatal Mental Health Centres, with each of the two Melbourne sites expected to support approximately 800 parents per year [TA-260617-health-0b1526089cd4]. McBride framed the initiative around documented need: approximately one in five women and one in ten men experience anxiety or depression during the perinatal period, and outer-suburban parents face particular barriers to accessing specialist mental health services.

This announcement extends a pattern of targeted mental health infrastructure investment by the minister — earlier in June, a headspace centre upgrade in Geelong was announced — suggesting a deliberate sequencing of community-level mental health announcements across Victoria. No parliamentary activity was recorded for this minister on this date; the comms stream is the sole source for this Note.

Primary records (1)

The official records this note draws on — the raw primary documents themselves, as published.

MediaNew Perinatal Mental Health Centres coming to Melbourne’s outer suburbsEmma McBrideWednesday 17 June 2026