Page 3702 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 28 October 2014
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promoted and seen as an affluent community but, as Ms Lawder has told us on many occasions of her experiences with Homelessness Australia, there are young people here in Canberra who for any number of reasons are disengaged from their parents, have no place to call home and have lost their childhood.
Children’s Week is a chance for us all to stop, reflect on how lucky we are, how important our children are to us and to recognise that there are many that need our help.
Carers ACT
MRS JONES (Molonglo) (4.38): On Wednesday, 8 October 2014 I had the pleasure of attending the Carers ACT launch of their new publication and app, “Navigating the acute mental health system in Canberra: a guide for families and carers”, at University House. This guide is a fantastic and in-depth resource to assist clients and carers to navigate the different areas of the mental health system and see how they interact with each other. It is available on both phone and web app.
As shadow minister for mental health, I am really pleased to see initiatives like this to support carers. Carers are quite often family members or close friends of someone with a mental health condition and need to be supported to the maximum that we can. I would like to thank all those in the ACT who are carers of someone with a mental health condition, because it is quite often a thankless and at times quite stressful job.
At the launch I had the pleasure of meeting some particular experts in the field, including Ms Jackie Crowe, national Mental Health Commissioner, who spoke at the event. The event was supported also by the attendance of Dr Peggy Brown, the Director-General of ACT Health, launching the event.
I would like to thank Carers ACT, in particular the CEO, Dee McGrath; president, Richard Bialkowski; treasurer, Bob Cotton; other board members, including Brett Walker, Bridget Larsen, Brian Joyce, Barbara Causon and Antony Stinziani; and the policy officer who spent an entire year of her life putting together this resource. It is a fantastic resource; it supports the work that carers do and helps people to navigate a system which can be quite difficult to navigate at a time in their lives which can be quite difficult to handle. Thanks very much for all the hard work of all the workers and volunteers at Carers ACT.
IGA rooftop house
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (4.40): I rise tonight to inform members about and support the establishment of IGA East Row house. The IGA rooftop house dinner is on this Friday night; it is the first IGA rooftop house gala dinner for 2014. I will just read from their brochure, because it says it all:
This unique IGA Rooftop House program is a program that is much needed by the wider community, a program that will prosper through community, business and government participation, a program that will eventually be supported nationally with an IGA Rooftop House built near every major or regional hospital.
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