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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Thursday, 11 March 2004) . . Page.. 1098 ..

for child and adolescent mental health services, Gungahlin outreach services, a link position between Calvary Hospital and the Canberra Hospital, a drug and alcohol mental health worker, discharge planner, supported accommodation initiatives, suicide prevention initiatives, and support for carers, among a range of other initiatives.

The government has also committed to providing 20 psychogeriatric beds in the new subacute non-acute facility currently being developed. This will provide a valuable new option for the ageing population of the ACT. We have moved away from the divisive purchaser-provider model of service delivery to develop a more collaborative way of working across agencies and with community organisations to enhance our ability to provide continuity of care and a more cohesive mental health service.

One significant initiative in the 2003-04 budget, particularly in view of recent media attention, was the establishment of the forensic court liaison worker to assist the courts when dealing with forensic mental health clients who come before them. The forensic mental health services team has also been boosted from a very modest four in 2001 to the current level of eight clinical positions in 2004. This enables the team to provide a range of forensic medical health services including court assessments, advice on management, education on mental health reports and other relevant personnel as well as providing in-reach services to remand centres. This and other initiatives are aimed at improving access to mental health services for people across the territory, including forensic mental health clients, and in improving the links between services and other agencies. The provision of a skilled workforce for mental health remains a significant challenge not only for the ACT but nationally and internationally.

This government is committed to working with all stakeholders to seek innovative ways of addressing this need. The government has also worked with the department to develop a mental health workforce strategy to improve our capacity to attract and retain appropriately qualified and skilled mental health workers. This has included working with the tertiary education sector to establish a post-graduate mental health nurse program, managing a scholarship program to facilitate skills enhancement opportunities and promoting the ACT as a preferred place of employment for mental health clinicians and providing assistance with relocation to the ACT for appropriately skilled workers.

As the minister has stated, the draft ACT mental health strategy and action plan 2003 to 2008 will provide the framework for this government to continue to provide a safe and continually improving mental health service for all Canberrans. We all acknowledge the need to continue to build partnerships across agencies and with the community sector to achieve this goal and we look forward to meeting that challenge. I add finally that we all know that this is a significant issue and one that we can always put more money towards. It will always be a difficult issue. It is my personal, very strongly held belief that this government is doing its utmost to address the issues of mental health funding and problems within the ACT.

MRS CROSS (4.24): I commend Mr Smyth for bringing on this matter of public importance because mental health is something that few politicians take as seriously as we should. Most believe that there are few votes in dealing with mental health. It continues to have a stigma that few people want to examine in detail, and it is an area that is not well understood by most politicians, not just in this place but across the country and, indeed, around the world. I agree that the ACT’s mental health system is in

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