Page 2325 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 16 September 1992
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ADOLESCENT UNIT
MS SZUTY (10.48): I move:
That the ACT Government should establish as soon as possible an adolescent unit as part of the hospital redevelopment project.
Madam Speaker, the proposition that the ACT should have its own adolescent unit for the treatment of young people in hospital is not a new one. Since the early 1980s there has been an impetus to make the stay in hospital of young people more productive for their treatment, recovery and acceptance of their illnesses and injuries. In 1980 an Australian College of Paediatrics report, "Health Care for Adolescents in Australia", called for the provision of special facilities for adolescents in hospitals. In 1983 an ACT youth health task group produced a policy paper entitled "Principle on the Provision of Health and Health Care Services to Young People" that recommended the provision of an adolescent ward in the ACT hospital system.
It seems curious to me that, if this concept has been known about for such a long time, there has been no concerted move on the part of the ACT Government to address the issue. I accept that the Federal Government had responsibility for the ACT for some years after the report was delivered. However, we are now in our fourth year of self-government and still we have no adolescent unit. However, we do have an election commitment from the ALP Government to:
... open an adolescent ward at Woden Valley Hospital to cater for the special needs of young people, and to provide them with the support and company of their own age group.
That was articulated in the most recent ACT election campaign.
Madam Speaker, Sydney has had an adolescent medical unit since 1977 - for 15 years now. Since the Children's Hospital in Camperdown took this innovative step, it has expanded the program and now runs an adolescent ward, a medical unit and an outpatients program, known as the Cellblock, which gives support to young people with health problems. I am not talking about just minor illnesses and recovery after accidents. Young people suffer from a great range of health problems, from broken bones and appendicitis to heart problems, cancer and every other illness suffered by others in the community.
Statistics from Royal Canberra Hospital, as it was known, and Woden Valley Hospital for the financial year 1990-1991 show that there were more than 3,000 admissions of young people between the ages of 11 and 19 to Royal Canberra Hospital and Woden Valley Hospital. In the 1991-92 financial year 2,737 young people in this age group were admitted to the two hospitals. Adolescence is defined by the World Health Organisation as the ages between 10 and 19, but the difference between the two groups as defined would be small.
Returning to the Canberra statistics, the reasons for admissions here varied - abdominal pain, chemotherapy, tonsillitis, diabetes, asthma, leukemia, poisoning, renal dialysis, fractures, cerebral palsy and ingrown toenails. This list is not exhaustive. At present these people are treated and hospitalised both with the adult population and with young children. What an adolescent unit could offer these young people is peer group support at a time when they need it most.
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