Page 1164 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 4 May 2022
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Winnunga will lead the early planning and design work for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residential alcohol and drug rehabilitation facility, with support from the ACT Health Directorate.
The government has also announced that a new facility will be built for Gugan Gulwan Aboriginal Youth Corporation. This facility will provide new opportunities for Gugan Gulwan’s youth alcohol and other drug services, among other services it provides. These facilities are intended to complement existing services, including the Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm, which offer the opportunity for cultural healing and physical and mental support for those who experience co-occurring mental health and alcohol or other drug issues.
I am also very pleased that the ACT and commonwealth governments’ mental health and suicide prevention bilateral schedule, announced on 27 March 2022, includes a co-funded commitment of over $8 million over four years for the development of the new integrated Youth at Risk program. The development of this program is closely informed by a six-month scoping project, funded through the 2020-21 budget and undertaken by the ACT Health Directorate in 2021.
This scoping work included an environmental scan, evidence review and broad consultation with more than 70 ACT mental health and human services agencies. The project provided detailed advice on an evidence-based response to meet the needs of young people who had experienced trauma and/or emerging co-occurring mental ill health and alcohol and other drug issues.
This program will deliver integrated care through a new adolescent trauma service, build sector partnerships and enhance flexible outreach for youth at risk, including young people with co-occurring mental ill health and alcohol and other drug misuse. It will include a territory-wide integrated framework of supports to reform the current service system and build increased capability to respond across sectors, settings and professions. Planning for the new service will commence in the second half of this year.
The ACT government has also recently signed the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement, with the commonwealth government and other state and territory governments. This national agreement sets a national, integrated, system-level framework for mental health and suicide prevention reform and commitments between the commonwealth, state and territory governments.
In this agreement, the ACT government advocated strongly for the inclusion of people with co-occurring mental health and alcohol and other drug issues as a priority population group. This will help to guide national activities, with shared responsibilities between the commonwealth and the state and territory governments to support these people. In particular, a key goal of this will be to support better integration across primary care, community and tertiary services.
These plans and agreements will guide both the clinical and policy goals and activities over the next few years and will be crucial for guiding the integration of these services
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