Page 4371 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 13 October 2009
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Ms Gallagher referred to this item in her speech. Through the last budget the Greens were able to secure funding over two years for this, which will involve the engagement of community organisations in providing consumer and carer-led education sessions to police officers.
With reference to the 30 per cent community sector goal, I would like to bring to the Assembly’s attention some of the recommendations the ACT Greens have about how we can implement that funding on the ground. I recently tabled the Greens report entitled My life, my community. The report drew together the Greens’ vision for mental health reform from looking at a body of policy and research from Australia and internationally. Most particularly, this paper sought to reflect the expressed views of consumers and the mental health community sector. The report also made 25 recommendations, covering areas such as health care, housing, daily living and legal matters.
In housing, for example, the Greens report recommended that the ACT government implement housing programs modelled on the NSW housing and accommodation support initiative, which is also known as HASI, for consumers who may have significant barriers to maintaining housing security. I am pleased to see an initiative based on HASI occurring in the ACT and I thank the ministers for both housing and health for the briefing on the progress of this initiative. I also attended a forum on this hosted by the ACT Mental Health Community Coalition.
One of the key aspects of HASI is that it involves a partnership not only between government and the community but also between government departments. A representative from the Richmond Fellowship involved in HASI in New South Wales noted that HASI cannot work without having health, housing and the community sector involved in the management and running of this initiative. I commend Housing ACT and its minister for this step forward on this excellent initiative.
The Greens report found that silos in service provision continue to be an issue for consumers and carers; an issue which has been identified in numerous reports by peak and other representative mental health organisations. As such, it is recommended that the government implement a cooperative intake model for care planning and service coordination across both Mental Health ACT and the community sector to facilitate access to a wide range of services and develop individually tailored, community-based programs of support. This should be networked in with services funded directly by the Australian government.
Another recommendation looked at the crisis assessment and treatment team. Due to problems encountered with the crisis assessment and treatment team, especially when it comes to some methods of intervention, the Greens report recommended that the ACT government fund an after-hours alternative to the CATT team through the further funding of appropriate existing community psychosocial rehabilitation services. The Mental Health Community Coalition in their budget submission identified such a community-based and run service as being key to developing and delivering improved crisis support.
The Greens report also recommended that legislative and practice support be provided to consumers to assist them in developing advance agreements and to oblige treating
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