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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Wednesday, 30 June 2004) . . Page.. 3063 ..

a young person’s life is in complete turmoil. They are begging the current ACT mental health services for case management, and they are being denied that. The experts in the mental health crisis team are saying, “You need case management.” Everybody knows that they need case management, but its not happening.

This is a flaw in the system, and it is a flaw that contributes to a statistic like the one in Ms MacDonald’s motion. This is why this is such an important motion. We should not be spending our time just slapping ourselves on the back: we should be setting ourselves strong, firm, targets—things that we have to work hard to achieve—so that people like our friend do not have to beg for services that are not forthcoming.

MR STANHOPE (Chief Minister, Attorney General, Minister for Environment and Minister for Community Affairs) (4.16): Mr Deputy Speaker, I am happy, of course, to support this motion and I thank Ms MacDonald for bringing it before the Assembly today. Mental health is one of the priorities of this government. I share Ms MacDonald’s concern about the impact of mental illness on our community. There is strong evidence of the increasing burden of disease caused by mental illness.

Depression has been listed as the fourth leading cause of burden of disease and injury in Australia, with suicide and self-inflicted injuries rated as the 11th leading cause of disease burden. This burden places increased pressure on the workload of our public hospitals, emergency departments and community services and support networks, and my government has made a commitment to facing the challenges associated with mental health care and to addressing that need.

The recently released ACT Mental Health Strategy and Action Plan 2003-08 promotes an innovative and collaborative approach to suicide prevention and managing mental health, and has acquired commitment across all sectors of the Canberra community. The mental health strategy articulates with the ACT social plan, the children’s plan, the health action plan, the caring for carers policy and the ACT homelessness strategy to work in conjunction with mental health specific policies and programs to address the issue of mental health and suicide prevention more broadly.

In acknowledgement of the role of support and other services outside public mental health services, the government funds a range of community agencies to provide mental health services in the community to improve outcomes for mental health consumers. During the 2004-05 financial year we anticipate a total allocation in excess of $5.3 million to non-government community organisations to provide support, accommodation, education, psycho-social and vocational rehabilitation services.

Since coming to office, this government has increased mental health funding significantly to $117 per capita in the 2003-04 budget. We anticipate this amount to increase to $131 per capita in the 2004-05 financial year.

We have made very significant progress in reversing the neglect of the previous government and, as Ms MacDonald says, this should be acknowledged. Initiatives we have funded have enhanced services for mental health consumers in a range of areas, including supported accommodation, respite care, suicide prevention, child and adolescent mental health services, older persons mental health and community outreach and after-hours services.

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