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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Wednesday, 30 June 2004) . . Page.. 3052 ..

The “mood gym” helps sufferers to understand their emotions and develop strategies to combat feelings that may, for example, lead to self-harm. In addition, the website is also able to provide the Centre for Mental Health Research with ongoing information to be studied and collated and which can then be used to continue to develop existing frameworks for treatment. This is a valuable program that continues to contribute to the growing body of knowledge surrounding mental illnesses like self-harm. However, we still need continued investment into such programs and research if we are going to make further inroads into combating this illness and changing the public’s perceptions of it.

On this point, it is encouraging to see that, in the ACT government’s 2004-05 budget, suicide prevention, which encompasses self-harm, was targeted as a major area of mental health funding with $1.373 million allocated over the next four years. Importantly, this initiative includes the employment of a full-time prevention project officer to develop strategy and promote a more coordinated approach to the management of self-harm and suicide in the ACT. Hopefully, this will begin to address the traditional shortfalls in the management of mental health as well as provide for a healthier, happier and more tolerant community.

This initiative will ensure that adequate resources are provided for programs and services to be founded to ensure that those needing assistance are able to access it. The reluctance or inability of those with mental health issues, such as self-harm, to access these services has been identified as a major inhibitor in the management of mental health not only in the ACT but also across Australia.

Lifeline has commented that little more than one out of three people with a mental health disorder is accessing care. This was similarly recognised in the ACT’s development of the mental health strategy and action plan in 2003. Within the 2004-05 allocation, the government has aimed to remedy this problem by providing the OzHelp Foundation with $240,000 to make support available to those who may need it. This foundation supports many of the trade industry’s apprentices, trainees and other workers who may need additional support in both work and non-work related areas. While I have just mentioned that only one out of three persons needing help actually seeks it, it is important that sufferers know that they can seek help and where to go to receive it.

Allocation to the OzHelp Foundation attracts resources to a portion of the community at high risk of mental illnesses such as self-harm—namely, young males and females between the ages of 18 and 24. In addition to this, it is important that this network has been provided and is accessible within a working environment, making the likelihood greater that sufferers will access help. It is essential that we make support services both visible and accessible and also without stigma. Continued awareness campaigns, in conjunction with greater support networks, are slowly beginning to achieve this ideal. (Extension of time granted). I thank members of the Assembly for their indulgence. I assure them that it will be only a short extension.

It is, however, disappointing that the same commitment to mental health cannot be found in the federal government’s 2004-05 budget. Patrick McGorry, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Melbourne, has recently stated that the mental health sector in Australia needed more government funding if it were to keep pace with the rest of the world. Traditionally, Australia is behind in worldwide trends in its commitment to mental health. Professor McGorry identified that mental health problems contribute

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