Page 4116 - Week 14 - Thursday, 25 October 1990
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reconstructing events in a different fashion from the way in which they would have transpired had he remained in government.
Mr Speaker, the full year effect of a $150,000 outlay by the previous Government would have been about $210,000 - insufficient to establish a service of the kind that this Government is now talking about. That is the fact of life. Frankly, I do not think it is entirely accurate or honest to suggest otherwise.
The implementation process for the mental health after hours crisis service nursing staff is nearly complete. Applications closed on 12 October and interviews have been held. Expressions of interest have been called for from existing clinical staff interested in staffing the on-call pool. The working party responsible for the implementation of the service has met four times and is developing the service's aims as well as its objectives and training procedures for the nursing staff. The working party will also liaise with other agencies - for example, police - about the service and it is my hope at this stage to launch a service on 3 December this year.
A couple of recent studies from the United States have tended to support the kind of service which we are establishing here in the ACT and I acknowledge that there are a range of such services which we could use as models. In a study in Cincinatti 80 per cent of clients using the service went to the hospital. Home visits were proportionately low but were still an important part of the service.
The history of the service highlights the contrast between the planned response of the Alliance and the knee-jerk response of the previous Government. In his first major statement to the Assembly Mr Berry announced that he would establish a 24-hour mental health crisis service and he actually said:
Today I will be instructing my Department to take such action as is necessary to implement a 24 hours crisis centre.
That was a wonderful statement. It was a welcome statement and one which I believe on that occasion I endorsed. However, on leaving government seven months later, approximately, nothing had happened - absolutely nothing. I would not think that people listening to that statement - "Today I will be instructing my Department to take such action as is necessary to implement a 24 hours crisis centre" - would be assured to discover that seven months later in fact nothing had been done, except to promise money.
The then Minister expressed his announcement during Schizophrenia Week. That was, I think, obviously one piece of evidence to point to the fact that Mr Berry was probably
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