Page 2815 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 21 October 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
In speaking to this motion I would like to note and to commend the initiatives introduced by the Government in the budget earlier this year. These include outreach workers for adolescents with mental health problems - a very appropriate initiative, although it will not overcome the lack of facilities for young people with mental illnesses. That is something that we hope that the adolescent unit will do. The budget also included the establishment of an intensive care team for the seriously mentally ill, and a service for mentally ill patients coming into contact with the criminal justice system. The new Mental Health Tribunal will be particularly important because its ultimate purpose is to cut down the delays being experienced when mental health cases are brought before the Magistrates Court. Urgent action was needed to correct this problem, and I am pleased to see the Government's first step in this regard.
Nevertheless, the measures announced in the budget still do not get to the core of the problem. I am sure they will help, but the Government still needs to put in place a more fundamental reform, and that is the proposed new mental health and community care Act. This legislation was the cornerstone of the Balancing Rights paper. Let nobody think that the Government has so far discharged, or even nearly discharged, its obligations in the reform of mental health. A lot remains to be done. In fact, a lot more remains to be done than has so far been achieved. Over the last year many commentators have been concerned about the situation in mental health and the dramatic slowness of the reforms in this arena. The issue is certainly not a new one. It has been going for more than just the last year; but things really do seem to be coming to a crunch.
In November 1990 when the report Balancing Rights was published by the ACT Mental Health Review Committee, it contained a comprehensive list of recommendations and really set the groundwork for a new mental health Act. Yet, like so many expensive and extensive reports, it seems to have been collecting dust on the shelf. What has happened to the very good work that these very eminent people did? It is especially distressing to see this report being put on the shelf, in view of the fact that at the time it was very well thought of and well received by the community at large.
I have noticed the recent formation of a new Mental Health Advisory Council consisting of interested people from the community. Even with this initiative, I am concerned that mental health reform seems to lack a clear focus. This Government seems to believe that setting up committees somehow substitutes for real action. This lack of action was certainly apparent to Brian Burdekin, the Federal Human Rights Commissioner, who said earlier this year that he "believed that the evidence in the ACT shows very clearly that the mentally ill are still being treated like second- or third-rate citizens, that they are not high on the list of priorities". It certainly seems that way. If they were high on the list of priorities the Labor Government would have brought about the necessary reforms many months ago.
Balancing Rights, as I said, was published in November 1990, which I have also said was almost two years ago. If we need any evidence at all, this is definite evidence of a clear lack of action and lack of priority in this arena. Meanwhile, many people are concerned that abuses of human rights continue each day in our mental health system in the ACT; for instance, in the way treatment orders are made and discharged, and the arrangements for emergency detention orders.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .