Page 4103 - Week 13 - Thursday, 2 December 2021
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(2) calls on the Minister for Mental Health to report to this Assembly:
(a) about how treatment services for people in the ACT with both mental health disorders and alcohol and other drug use disorders will be integrated, including by implementing effective cross-referral and coordination, and when; and
(b) on how many:
(i) accommodation and inpatient beds and places; and
(ii) community-based services;
will provide integrated treatment for people in the ACT with both mental health disorders and alcohol and other drug use disorders; and
(3) resolves that the Drugs of Dependence (Personal Use) Amendment Bill 2021, standing in the name of Mr Pettersson, not be brought on for debate until five (5) sitting days after the Minister for Mental Health has reported back to this Assembly.
Lived experiences: this motion is the result of real and tragic lived experiences. We hear too many of them, and I am certain that others in this place will have heard them, too. Usually, they are from parents, but sometimes they are from siblings, partners, grandparents or friends—how they spent years trying to get their loved ones the mental health care and drug rehabilitation that they need.
Overwhelmingly, these are the lived experiences of people who are in desperate need of both mental health and drug and alcohol treatment, but who are effectively bounced from one service to another, with limited integration or coordination.
In the gallery today, Mr Deputy Speaker, is Janine Haskins. Her daughter, Brontë Haskins, took her own life in February 2020, after a long battle with drugs and mental health issues. Her death is now the subject of a coronial inquiry, so I will not be speaking at length today about the circumstances of Brontë’s death. Janine, however, has conveyed to us that Brontë was just like you and me—full of hopes, dreams and aspirations. Brontë was 23. She should have had her whole life ahead of her.
What we do know is that Brontë interacted with the ACT mental health system, hospital, the justice and corrections systems, and police and paramedics in the final days and weeks of her life. Janine feels—and knows—that this system let Brontë down. Janine, we are incredibly sorry for your loss of Brontë, and I know that all members of this Assembly are, too. Fixing the system does not bring Brontë back, but we can start something here today that will help other Canberrans like Brontë.
I acknowledge the shadow minister for health, Giulia Jones, who has reached out to so many Canberra families. One of the experiences is that of the mother of a young man who tried and tried to obtain both mental health and drug rehabilitation services for her son, which he was in desperate need of. She will be listening today, but I will not state her name.
Her son bounced between different mental health services. When in mental health treatment, he was ineligible for drug and alcohol services, but upon release from that
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