Page 1479 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 June 2007
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will work with families, including looking at how we can improve parenting skills and make sure that parents of children who have a mental illness, who are involved with drug and alcohol or who have substance abuse issues are able to provide the care and support that their children will need.
We will also look at public health and continue to fund growth in access to cancer services—another area where, regrettably, demand for health services is continuing to grow.
Capital investment will focus on a new car park at the Canberra Hospital, to ensure that we can meet some of the demand for parking, and also create a separate, new helipad at the top of the structure with a direct link into the Canberra Hospital. Again, that will be warmly welcomed by hospital staff, who have been concerned about the walk across the car park in order to get patients into the hospital.
MS PORTER: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Thank you, minister. Can you further elaborate on how these strategies will ensure services reach those most in need?
MS GALLAGHER: We have attempted to ensure that the strategies we put in place will reach those members of the community who are most in need and who seek government support, and in that sense the extra funding going into mental health has been warmly welcomed by the mental health sector. It will ensure that again we can keep pace with demand but also, importantly, that we are providing alternatives to hospitalisation for people with a mental illness, that we are looking at our partnerships in the community sector to make sure that those with the expertise in community based support are given the capacity to continue to extend and implement their programs. It will allow for extra support in our older persons mental health inpatient unit. It will support mental health nurses in the emergency department. It will provide extra accommodation in the community for step-up/step-down for adults and young people and ensure that we are providing the additional staff with the training they need to appropriately address the changing needs of the mental health system.
Also in terms of our commitment to mental health, we will progress the work over the new adult inpatient facility, which will be at the Canberra Hospital, along with the forward design work for a forensic facility, a secure mental health unit. This will replace our existing psychiatric services unit and, once completed, will create a best practice environment to support the best patient-centred care that we can provide.
The disability sector over the past year has lobbied me very strongly for extra support, particularly for elderly parents who have been caring for their children at home for extended periods of time and who may now be getting quite elderly themselves, those whose children are now 50 years old, and those parents who have been looking for solutions for longer-term care and support for their children, along with parents of younger children, particularly those who are about to leave the school environment and who have no other alternatives to daytime support. This has been an issue for us at the end of every schooling year, particularly once they leave, say, Black Mountain school: what happens and where do they go?
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