Page 4149 - Week 12 - Thursday, 1 December 2022
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
this motion. I will be more than happy to provide all of the updates and report back on the advocacy that is called for in his motion today.
Canberra is a kind, connected and caring community, and we want our young people to have access to the mental health and wellbeing services that support their needs. Mental health conditions are diverse, which is why ACT government supports a diversity of community mental health services to provide the right treatment at the right time. That includes, among many other services that are listed in Mr Pettersson’s motion, the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service run by Canberra Health Services, CatholicCare Marymead’s youth programs, the Step Up, Step Down residential treatment programs for young people, and the Youth Aware of Mental Health program delivered to year 9 students by MIEACT which has now reached more than 7,000 year 9 students since it began in 2020.
Young people are experiencing increased pressures and worries about the impacts of COVID, worries about their future in education, employment and housing affordability, and the fact that we are in a climate crisis. At the same time social isolation during 2020 and 2021 made it harder for young people to stay connected to their friends and family.
Our Office for Mental Health and Wellbeing and ACT mental health policy team work hard to ensure that the additional $38 million of mental health funding was delivered in the bilateral agreement with the commonwealth, signed in March this year. It was driven by years of ACT research and advocacy of Canberrans with lived experience, rather than just repeating the same investments made by other jurisdictions without understanding the specifics of the ACT mental health sector, including our hardworking NGOs.
Many more headspace centres would be appreciated, and digital apps may be useful, but all of the evidence tells us that we need a diversity of mental health services for young people with different conditions at different points in their mental health journey, and for young people dealing with additional complex circumstances in their life.
We know from the McArthur report in August 2021 on service system and implementation requirements for raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility in the ACT that 66 per cent of 10 to 13-year-olds in the youth justice system have at least moderate mental health concerns, 33 per cent have experienced sexual abuse or exploitation, 90 per cent have a family violence history, and 38 per cent have experienced suicidal ideation or attempts.
These are 10- to 13-year-old children that we are talking about. We know that if we do not provide the right support to young people experiencing trauma, abuse, violence and mental health concerns when they are young, it does not fix itself. We will see those young people needing support in adult mental health services, drug and alcohol services, the justice system, disability care, homelessness services and crisis support for people experiencing domestic and family violence.
There is no single solution, no single clinical model of care or app that will work for all young people. We need to be careful about how we apply solutions that might
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video