Page 3154 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 12 September 1990
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services. There are only just enough staff positions at present and new recruitment is difficult. Secondly, the cost of what I will call the New South Wales model is much greater, and there is, as yet, no firm evidence available to me to show that the greater cost is warranted by greater effectiveness, although there are assertions that this is so.
The results of evaluation of the impact of New South Wales services have been mixed and, in any case, are of limited application to the ACT because of the quite different population characteristics and mental health service structures of this city. Canberra does not have a mental hospital, it has lower psychiatric hospital admission rates than New South Wales, and a greater proportion of its services are already community based. These factors can be expected to have a greater effect on the need for and impact of any given service.
Thirdly, there are a number of other deficiencies in mental service provisions which need to be considered once the essential components of crisis care have been provided. Some of these deficiencies include, as examples: a lack of any specialised residential care for the treatment of mentally ill adolescents and children; continuing difficulties in providing secure care in some instances; inability to keep up with population growth in Tuggeranong, so that counselling and community mental health service staff are less well provided there than in other areas of Canberra; and difficulties in meeting the demand for rehabilitation services, particularly in the area of work rehabilitation.
A major difficulty in policy information in this area arises from the lack of valid data. Assertions of value were made, but without the support of genuine comparisons of costs and outcomes. The crisis service will be carefully evaluated in its first year of operation. The evaluation will involve feedback from clients, care-givers and workers. At the end of the year a report will allow consideration of any changes suggested by the evaluation, and this could include the possibility of expansion towards a New South Wales model if the data supports this and if it is considered to have priority for available funds.
Mr Speaker, the crisis care service announced today meets the commitment I made earlier this year. It will provide assistance when required, either in the community or at the hospital, at a reasonable cost and within any limitations imposed by staff availability. I am confident that it will considerably improve the help available to mentally and emotionally distressed persons and relieve to some extent the burden of care carried by their families. When this measure is added to the review of the Mental Health Act and the replacement of the psychiatric ward at Woden Valley Hospital by a larger purpose built unit on the principal hospital site, it is clear that this Government has already made a major contribution to overcoming the recognised deficiencies in mental health services in the ACT.
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