Page 3266 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 16 August 2011
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I ask leave to make a short statement in relation to the papers.
Leave granted.
MS GALLAGHER: I am pleased to present to you the first-year evaluation reports for the ACT’s mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention framework “Building a Strong Foundation: A Framework for Promoting Mental Health and Wellbeing in the ACT 2009-2014” and the suicide prevention strategy “Managing the Risk of Suicide: A Suicide Prevention Strategy for the ACT 2009-2014”. The government’s implementation and evaluation chapters of both the framework and the strategy indicate that the outcomes of programs and activities undertaken by agencies in the area of mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention and suicide prevention will be collected on a six-monthly basis and reported to the Assembly annually.
Key achievements for the 2009-10 implementation period include:
participation in workplace mental health literacy training by over 3,000 individuals from government and community agencies;
expansion of MindMatters and KidsMatter across ACT schools, with 14 primary schools participating in KidsMatter and 18 secondary schools and colleges participating in MindMatters;
provision of a mental health risk assessment to all new detainees at both the Bimberi Youth Justice Centre and the Alexander Maconochie Centre on admission;
successful implementation of the housing and accommodation support initiative, known as the HASI program, which ensures tenancy support for 10 people with serious mental illness through individual care packages;
provision of support to 333 Canberrans bereaved by suicide via SupportLink and Carers ACT;
allocation of 67 properties through Housing ACT’s housing for young people project; and
the development of an MOU between Corrective Services, the AFP and ACT courts administration outlining the responsibilities of staff within each organisation in relation to the care of people with a mental illness.
Findings from both evaluations suggest that there is a need to build capacity in the areas of data collection and evaluation processes and procedures to facilitate improved measurements of progress relating to the implementation and effectiveness of mental health promotion prevention, early intervention and suicide prevention activities.
The Labor government are committed to the mental health and wellbeing of the ACT community and we have demonstrated this repeatedly since 2001 by increasing the
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