Jacci Ingham had been living in Katherine for two decades, and she couldn't imagine living anywhere else.

It was where her friends were, where her favourite memories were made and where her passion for landscape photography really flourished.

But when her NDIS request to move into a local supported accommodation facility was knocked back, she was deemed legally homeless.

The writing was on the wall - she had no choice but to leave.

Although she does not have a disability that is visible to the outside world, Jacci - who is in her 40s - has always relied on around-the-clock support to be able to live her life.

"Mum and dad figured there was something going on at a very young age. I used to see various counsellors and paediatricians and what not and they'd try these different things to see if that would improve me," Jacci said.

"To be honest, I was a bit out of it for a while like my speech was different, I had thought differently, I was prone to very delusional ways of thinking."

"And then by the time I was in my 20s was when I started going to hospital and things were getting worse to where I couldn't manage it anymore.

Eventually, she was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.

"Basically it's like schizophrenia with periods of manic depression or morbid depression," she said.

"It's really bad, yeah."

Her illness means that she is unable to work and has been on a permanent disability pension since around the time she was diagnosed. She was living with her mum and relying on her support until last year when her mum decided to move to Queensland.

Jacci, on the other hand, decided to stay because of her love of the Territory, and because she wanted to try stepping out by herself.

But, despite the dedication of her part-time care workers, she wasn't doing well.

"I noticed I started getting very very depressed and not going out very often and things just got worse from there to when I started messing with medications," she said.

More news:

"[I] even overdos[ed] on medication to a point where I just collapsed and ended up lying on the laundry floor.

"I just, I didn't want to live. I wanted to end it. Even though I was in a place that I love, I knew I wasn't getting the right support."

She ended up in hospital in Darwin again, because Katherine does not have its own psych ward, and then in temporary accommodation which was rented out to a local disability support organisation.

When that wasn't renewed, she made an application through the NDIS to move into a supported independent living facility, with her carers letting her stay with them while she waited for the outcome.

Her application was denied.

"Because I came under mental illness and not physical disability, I wasn't quite the priority," she said. "Which is really sad because people with mental illness get neglected for that kind of issue all the time."

Jacci is just one of many people in the NT and across the country who have found themselves in what those in the mental health world call "service gaps."

And in a place like Katherine, no matter how hard the staff on the ground work to bridge these gaps, people like Jacci seem to keep falling through.

Director and Clinical Psychologist for Big Sky Psychology, Zoe Collins, is one of the people working to bridge the service gaps that people in the Northern Territory face when it comes to mental health care.

Big Sky was founded as a means to provide a telepsychology service with consistent support and short wait times regardless of where people live.

She said Jacci's experience is far from unique.

"It is true, a lot of people do find that...because of the high need and complex mental health presentations, there are some difficulties sometimes [with] accessing services that are needed in the Big Rivers region," she said.

"We do see people who have either left Katherine or accessed our service because the in-person services on the ground weren't meeting their needs - either too short term or they were falling through some service gaps. Or people were changing over too quickly. Or they didn't get the choice that other bigger areas can get."

She said the unmet mental health needs of people in the NT can so often result in tragedy.

"In the Northern Territory, there's high and complex needs, there's complex mental health presentations, much higher suicide rates than national statistics and other states as well. And some of those mental health needs are greater in remote towns and particularly in Aboriginal communities," she says.

"So any extra funding is very welcome in terms of how to either support remote communities on the ground, or how to support telepsychology services to provide that consistent and culturally attuned care to people who need that.":

Remote and Population Health Manager for Katherine West Health Board, Megan Green, was brought into the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation as the Mental Health Coordinator in 2016, and tasked with the role of servicing the mental health needs of residents across the 160,000 sq km from the WA border to the edge of the Tanami desert.

"So people have got...a number of options (in Darwin) . For the mob out bush and even in Katherine itself, I think they're quite limited," she said.

She said the only option for patients who are in the midst of a mental health crisis, because Katherine does not have the services required, is to have them flown to Darwin at a cost of "thousands of dollars."

"It's always a last resort to send someone out of community, it's only if we can't support them or their family, or support the family to support them," Megan said.

"There aren't a lot of options so it would be good to see some more avenues of support and even Katherine would still be closer than Darwin. And a lot of our mob have family in Katherine."

She said the distance, especially for Indigneous clients, can be detrimental to their recovery.

"I still think there's a lot of a fear factor, you know, going to the mental health units up in Darwin. It's very scary for clients and their families, there's sort of general mistrust of institutions. And people are isolated from their community, their families, their friends, which is really important in people's recovery."

Megan said she would like to see more investment in after-hours and rehab and recovery services in regional areas like Katherine.

"I think what happens is, we can tend to get all diverted about the acute side of things, you build more beds, you'll fill them. It's about preventing people from getting there in the first place."

More than $45m in funding from the NT and Commonwealth to expand mental health services in the Territory was announced this month, including to build a new mental health inpatient unit at the Darwin Hospital.

Some of this funding will go towards two more mental health "satellite clinics" across the NT as well as aftercare services for people who are discharged from hospital following a suicide attempt.

When asked if funding should be directed to Katherine or other regional areas, NT Health Minister Natasha Fyles said there had been investment into supporting the mental health needs of people living in remote and regional parts of the NT.

"We've put a significant investment into primary health care to help support people stay in the community, but also in our acute facility at Royal Darwin Hospital [with a] significant expansion - 18 more beds, six beds stabilisation, and assessment area in terms of regional mental health," she said

She also said there was a "strong range of measures and support for territories living with mental illness."

"We have partnerships with non government organisations that provide 24 hour seven day a week care for people in the community," she said.

"We've also put in place programs such as supporting Territorians who have a public housing tendency to continue and maintain that tenancy with a non government organisation.

"So I'm not saying that there's more work to do, but there has been significant work and significant changes."

In her new home town of Brisbane, Jacci is doing well. She hasn't been in hospital for months and is living in the kind of supported facility she needs.

But, she really misses the Territory, which has been the subject of so much of her photography.

"The landscapes, the intense lightning storms in the wet season, the beautiful, dry season. landscapes of the savanna...It's just beautiful and it has all these very unique places which have really touched my soul," she said.

"I'll always feel that it's home to me....But, I have to face the reality of the situation that they don't have that kind of support there."

She said if Katherine had the kind of mental health support she needed, she would move back "in a heartbeat."

But for now, she is focusing on staying well and capturing her new surroundings with her Nikon DSLR.

"It's the one thing that is helping me fight this," she said.

If this story has raised anything for you, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

If you are seeing this message you are a loyal digital subscriber to The Katherine Times, as we made this story available only to subscribers. Thank you very much for your support and allowing us to continue telling your stories. We appreciate your support of journalism in our great area.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:

DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY?: Send letters to the editor or story tips to editor.kathtimes@austcommunitymedia.com.au