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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 4208 ..

Mr Speaker, for some time now the Government has been concerned about the direction of the Territory' s mental health services.

This concern has been reflected in the Government's decision to release a new strategy entitled "Mental Health Care in Canberra - Moving Ahead."

In recent years mental health care in the ACT, as in the rest of Australia, has undergone significant changes.

Up until twenty years ago most psychiatric services were delivered through the auspices of asylums and the psychiatric profession.

But since that time the system has undergone vast change and reform. The early seventies saw the growth in demand for more consumer and community based mental health services, services that weren't run just by the medical profession and that did not just focus on acute care.

And the focus of support has changed. Asylums and institutions are no longer accepted as the main focus of care.

This Government is determined to continue these reforms and provide the type of support services which allow those with a mental dysfunction to maintain their independence and dignity and live successfully within the community structure.

However to continue these reforms we need to make sure we have a good mix of self-help groups and community-based organisations, as well as a range of public and private hospital beds and services and psychiatrists both within the medical system and also in the broader community.

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