Page 166 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 28 November 2012
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and that does not provide the services that that client needs or the workforce to provide it. So, yes, it is complicated and I am going to take the time to make sure we get it right.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Hanson.
MR HANSON: Minister, the adolescent health unit has been promised for the last four years. Why are you still unable to estimate how much this promise will cost ACT taxpayers?
MS GALLAGHER: Like the forensic unit, it will be costed when the final decisions are taken in relation to the project.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Ms Porter.
MS PORTER: Minister, what benefits will this facility bring to the mental health community?
MS GALLAGHER: I thank Ms Porter for the question. I would remind members that the forensic mental health services are being provided. They are being provided at the jail, they are provided on an outpatient basis where appropriate, and indeed they are provided within the adult mental health unit—the new adult mental health unit that has been opened—as appropriate. So the clinical needs of clients of the forensic mental health service are being managed.
With respect to what we are trying to design here, we have taken some lessons from where a small unit has been opened, and those jurisdictions are actually saying that, if they had their time over, they would not build a unit like that because of the problems they have experienced since opening it. So we are conscious of learnt lessons from other places, and we are trying to address those and make sure that the final building, when it is costed—and my expectation is that it will be done through this budget process—is actually a building that not only is going to meet the needs of the people who are going to spend a lot of time there, because they are traditionally fairly long-stay patients, but also meet the needs of the workforce that we will need. I do not imagine that Mr Hanson is going to be putting his hand up to work there. It is a very specialised workforce and we have to make sure that the service that we run, for the very small group of people that will need this service, is going to be able to be delivered. They are the things that we are considering as we finalise the project.
MR COE: Supplementary question, Madam Speaker.
MADAM SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Mr Coe.
MR COE: Chief Minister, when will the secure mental health unit and the adolescent mental health unit be completed?
MS GALLAGHER: That will be dependent on budget decisions.
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