Page 1677 - Week 06 - Thursday, 3 June 2021
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The mental health of Canberrans is a priority for this government, especially as the community continues to experience the compounding effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the Assembly passed this resolution in June 2020, COVID was still a fairly new crisis. Now as we emerge from the pandemic we can plan with a recovery focus, and the government is committed to ensuring we have the right services in place to address COVID’s mental health impacts.
I take this opportunity to highlight the investments made to further support Canberrans during this challenging time. Providing for our community is of paramount importance to the ACT government. The ACT government’s 2020-21 budget committed an additional $15.8 million to extend a range of mental health programs and services that were initially funded through the COVID-19 mental health support package in May 2020.
These programs and services were aimed at growing capacity in the service system to meet the increased demand on services. The funding included an additional $720,000 to maintain the current expansion of the access mental health team and the home assessment acute response team; $14.1 million over four years to extend the Police, Ambulance and Clinician Early Response—PACER—service and continue its operation for seven days a week; over $800,000 to non-government organisations to support the provision of community-based mental health services in the ACT, including Menslink, Mental Health Foundation, Mental Illness Education ACT and Relationships Australia; and $120,000 for a continued community mental health and wellbeing communications campaign.
Funding these programs on top of the $4.5 million COVID-19 mental health support package announced on 6 May 2020 reflects the ACT government’s commitment to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of Canberrans through the ongoing impacts of the pandemic. The funding has also provided approximately $420,000 in funding to deliver to safe haven cafes for the Canberra community. These cafes are an important initiative to support patients in a non-clinical, community environment, rather than the emergency department. This funding will assist with various aspects of implementing the project, including the co-design process, infrastructure, and establishment and running costs.
The safe haven cafes will be warm, non-clinical, safe spaces, where people can freely go if they are experiencing emotional distress, mental health concerns, isolation and loneliness and are seeking social connection and support. The cafes represent an important addition to the mental health service system, offering a different approach to people in distress and enabling emergency department diversion.
The service model resulted from co-design with consumers, carers, and clinicians, and I have been pleased to be able to speak to some of these participants myself. The co-design process created a robust model that outlines how the safe haven cafes will adopt a peer support approach using an experienced peer workforce to assist people to navigate their distress and access additional supports where needed. The cafes will provide care and support that responds in a timely way to the needs of people that is recovery focused and meaningful to them. Options for the location of a community
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