Page 2331 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 16 September 1992
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Adolescent Health has recognised the need for better facilities in the ACT and, again as Ms Szuty said, Ms Follett's own Youth Advisory Council last year provided advice recommending that an adolescent ward be established. The Social Policy Committee of the last Assembly also recommended the provision of a 20-bed adolescent ward. Other groups which support the unit include the Red Cross Youth Health Project, the Youth Affairs Network, the Australian Association for the Welfare of Children in Hospital, the Youth Health Task Force and the ACT Council of Social Service. The list goes on and on.
Madam Speaker, to conclude, adolescents need health care workers trained to relate to their problems. They need not only an environment designed to deal with the primary medical concerns but also a supportive environment designed to cope with their educational problems, their communications problems, the "I have nobody to talk to" syndrome, and their emotional problems - the "Nobody understands me" syndrome.
I think it is appropriate at this stage to suggest that I might have a conflict of interest here. As a teenager I was in hospital for a prolonged time in Brisbane, first of all in a paediatric ward and then in an adult ward, both of which were totally unacceptable and both of which caused more problems than they solved. Finally, it was decided that an adolescent unit was appropriate. An adolescent unit was not available in Brisbane at the time and that meant going to Sydney. Just to show you the depth of feeling of many of the doctors and, for that matter, patients, in the end it was perceived that the extra stress placed upon me by not being near my parents or my friends would be outweighed by the unit. It was, and the whole experience turned out to be a good one rather than, as it seemed at the time, a bad one.
So I must admit that I do have a personal interest in this area. The current facilities are just not adequate. I strongly support this motion that better facilities for adolescents be provided, and be provided now.
MR BERRY (Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Sport) (11.13): The approach of the Liberals never ceases to amaze me. When they were in government there were no plans for an adolescent unit, but there are calls for them when they are in opposition. I suppose that that is what oppositions are for.
The Government is keenly aware of the special needs of all users of the ACT health system and it plans for these needs, especially within the hospital redevelopment process. It is acknowledged by the Government that adolescents have special needs. It is inappropriate, of course, to place most adolescents within paediatric wards with small children, and it is equally inappropriate to place adolescents with the population generally found in medical and surgical wards in hospitals. While the general public, Madam Speaker, views adolescence as probably the healthiest time of an individual's life, adolescents are in fact disproportionately represented in hospital populations, as has been said, because of violence, sporting accidents and motor vehicle accidents and substance abuse, which have been mentioned. There is also another group of adolescents who use our health system and who are not provided for at this stage - those with chronic and terminal illnesses.
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