Page 4113 - Week 14 - Thursday, 25 October 1990
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difficult area for people to work in. It has a very high drop-out rate as people suffer considerable stress in relation to their day-to-day workloads. I think there will probably always be a shortage of trained and experienced practitioners in this area, and I guess it is something that the whole community, not just the ACT, must look at very carefully to ensure that trained and fully equipped workers are provided to assist our community.
Aside from the obvious benefits of relieving families of some of the strain of dealing with disturbing situations, early intervention by professionals in these traumas will help lessen the number of hospital admissions. I think we all know, Mr Deputy Speaker, that the total cost to the community of health care would be considerably reduced if action could be taken at an earlier stage to prevent the expensive matters related to having to admit people to hospital.
Experience overseas would clearly bear this out. For example, a pilot scheme in the town of Buckingham in the United Kingdom, in which highly trained psychiatric nurses have been placed with each general practice in the town, has had startlingly good results. The number of psychiatric admissions from this community of some 35,000 people has fallen dramatically. That is the sort of support that is required at a very early period in the development of any such problems.
One feature to come out of this and other studies is the importance of the appropriate psychiatric services being accessible to the members of the community who need them. The counselling unit, which is currently located at the Kambah Health Centre, by a quirk of planning, has become isolated from the community over a period of time. It was never developed to its potential. We have seen a number of areas moving out of that location and that particular centre has been difficult for residents of Tuggeranong and Weston Creek to gain access to. It is pleasing to see that this unit will be relocated into the new health centre in the Tuggeranong town centre near the bus interchange. Therefore it will be more accessible to Tuggeranong and Weston Creek residents.
May I conclude, Mr Deputy Speaker, not only by commending the introduction of the crisis care service, but also by expressing the hope that, following its phase of public consultation, the forthcoming review of the Mental Health Act will quickly result in mental health legislation that is more in line with late twentieth century thinking in dealing with mental illness rather than the nineteenth century legacy left to us by years of Federal neglect.
MR CONNOLLY (11.45): Mr Deputy Speaker, I rise briefly in this debate to welcome the fact that something is at last being done in relation to a mental health crisis care service. I wish to place on record the fact that seeding money for this project was one of the initiatives in the
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