Page 2734 - Week 09 - Thursday, 8 August 2013
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MADAM SPEAKER: The Minister for Health, Ms Gallagher, can do that so long as she does not announce new policy.
MS GALLAGHER: Thank you, Madam Speaker, for your direction. In December 2012 COAG endorsed the road map for national mental health reform and tasked the National Mental Health Working Group with developing the first implementation plan for the road map. The implementation plan will become the fifth national mental health plan and will be endorsed by COAG as a whole-of-government document.
The ACT government has laid out a clear plan for our investment in mental health, both through the election commitments we made and through the parliamentary agreement with the Greens for the Eighth Legislative Assembly. These investments over the life of the Assembly include a further investment in a community-based after-hours crisis assessment team, and investments in community mental health, both clinical and the community sector. The budget that will be passed next week implements that commitment. There will be more adolescent, adult and older persons mental health inpatient beds, the building of a secure mental health facility, further work around suicide prevention, intensive rehabilitation and the very important area of young people’s mental health services.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Gentleman.
MR GENTLEMAN: Minister, how has the government fostered engagement and collaboration with the mental health sector?
MS GALLAGHER: I thank Mr Gentleman for the question. A very important part of delivering reform in the mental health sector is to engage very closely with carers and consumers around their involvement in the delivery and design of new mental health services and even the reform of existing ones. So we have a very detailed consumer participation and carer participation framework that operates within mental health. Consumers and carers participate in 100 per cent of ACT Health’s mental health committees. We also have the ministerial advisory committee on mental health that I chair that brings together community organisations, carers and consumers to sit round the table with me and talk around what the priorities are in the formulation of policies and also in terms of key financial investments they would like to see. All of this makes a difference.
I think we have a very collaborative, engaged and cohesive mental health system that in many other jurisdictions is highly fragmented. I do not think we have here the problems we see in other places, and that is down to the goodwill that exists between the clinicians that work across the public and community-based systems and the work that goes in to support people who have a mental illness living in our community.
Children and young people—youth support and transition team
DR BOURKE: My question is to the minister for children and young people. Minister, the youth support and transition team commenced operation in January 2012 following a period of consultation to develop the service model. Can you update the
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