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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 574 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

I heard Mrs Carnell sing the praises of the private psychiatric hospital. Who amongst the acute clients that use our mental health services now will benefit from that? Mr Speaker, there is still a shortage of acute beds in our mental health services; there is no question about that. I did not hear a word about that in Mrs Carnell's speech. I expect that the same situation will continue to prevail, and that is a very disappointing approach from this Health Minister.

Mrs Carnell said that community-based services were in need of attention. I agree with that, and I will welcome any advances that she makes in that area. But it is still very troubling to see a mental health service that does not have a full-time director of mental health services or the professor of psychiatry in place while the ship is off and running. Mrs Carnell says that the person who runs the Mental Health Service these days is the Executive Director of Mental Health Services. This is completely at odds with the intent of the legislation. Those people who have read and understand the legislation would understand that all of the power and protection provided by the legislation is vested in the director, not in any executive director without appropriate qualifications. Mr Speaker, Mrs Carnell's clash with psychiatrists in the ACT has caused a great hiatus and great tension in the development of our mental health services. The most disappointing part of Mrs Carnell's speech was her failure to address the issue of acute beds - a well-known shortage in the ACT and something which has to be addressed one way or the other.

I return to my comment that I welcome any improvements in the community-based services. It is very clear to me that there are still some large gaps in the way the mental health services are being managed. I repeat my call to Mrs Carnell to deny the closure, or partial closure, of Hennessy House and Watson Hostel. I would also call on Mrs Carnell to deny the strong rumours that the professorial position for the chair of psychiatry could be downgraded to associate professor.

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister and Minister for Health and Community Care) (3.57), in reply: All you can say, Mr Speaker, is that around here there are some people who can never take good news or who can never accept that there are a lot of people out there in the mental health area trying jolly hard to produce the best possible service. The statement that I made today was about the successes of a lot of people out there who have worked very hard over the last few months. We do have an Executive Director of Mental Health Services, who actually runs our Mental Health Service. Mr Berry knows very well that the Director of Mental Health is only a position under the Act that does not necessarily have any administrative function in mental health at all. I will table, for Mr Berry's interest, the instrument of appointments to the position of Director of Mental Health Services, signed in November last year, Mr Speaker. It is a pity that Mr Berry simply cannot, for one moment, accept that there might be things that are actually very good happening out there in mental health.

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