Page 4108 - Week 14 - Thursday, 25 October 1990
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the intellectual disability area. We are trying to pick up the loss of the seven months while the Follett-Whalan axis was in power. That has put us behind in self-government. Self-government started on 6 December 1989; we are here to stay and this is a further plank in the platform we will go on at the 1992 election.
Members interjected.
MR COLLAERY: The Opposition makes fun of it being a plank, but I assure its members that mental health is of vital importance to the community. It is not a thing to be joked about as the Opposition is doing here today - or some of the Opposition. I exclude Mr Stevenson and I note that Ms Follett has once again vacated the Assembly.
The mental health crisis service will complement another initiative which was recently announced in the 1990-91 budget context - the adolescent day care unit. How many times over the past 10 years have people who knew something about this area asked for psychiatric day care for troubled adolescents and youngsters? When did the Federal Labor Government respond to that? The answer is never. And did the Follett Government respond to it? The answer is no. It was left to the Alliance Government to fund that psychiatric day care centre through its troubled budget. We did it, and that day care centre will be one of the two examples of areas where we are going to work closely with agencies in providing a new network of specific services for young people.
The adolescent day care unit is expected to be developed progressively over a three-year strategy. It will be run by a committee, with a wide-ranging membership of government agencies, such as mental health, welfare and education, and community agencies. The unit will focus on maintaining the strong community links that I believe are a feature of our Alliance Government. Contrary to some perceptions that have been put about by the Opposition, these links will bring us back, in recognition, in 1992. The operations of the adolescent day care unit and the unit proposed by my colleague Mr Humphries will be aimed at plugging gaps in the provision of existing services, particularly for those people experiencing severe emotional and behavioural problems in the ACT.
Many community agencies have contacted us, and quite a number have congratulated our Government for recognising the need for the unit, for providing pragmatic funds and for providing the support services to go with it. The unit will provide a daytime therapeutic environment for young persons aged between 12 and 18 years, particularly those experiencing severe emotional and behavioural problems. It will have a focus on different models - for example, educational, vocational or recreational - to assist those young people to return to work or school, or to pursue other alternatives. Mr Berry knew that was in our budget, yet he stood in the adjournment debate to take a few quick,
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