Page 210 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 February 2018
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Canberra Hospital was at times operating with a single psychiatrist on duty, raising concerns for patient safety. As noted in Mrs Dunne’s motion, the shortage of mental health professionals in the territory has had real impacts on the provision of child and adolescent mental health services.
Canberra’s Huxtable family bravely went public last October with the story of their experiences in order to highlight this crisis and the impact it has had on their family. When the Huxtables’ daughter was diagnosed as needing mental health treatment, the GP told them frankly that there was no psychiatrist in Canberra who could treat her. Instead, the family found themselves forced to access an inpatient treatment program in faraway Melbourne with treatment and travel costs running to more than $1,000 per week.
Last year and with permission I brought up the situation of another Canberra family in a speech that I gave in this chamber, and then Mrs Dunne shared their story with the minister in annual reports hearings. Like the Huxtables, this family has found it necessary to travel interstate to secure mental health treatment for their child as a consequence of the shortage of professionals here, this time finding the needed services in Sydney.
Shortly after I brought up this family’s situation in my speech another Canberra resident contacted me to tell me that what I had said had struck a chord. You see, this man has a co-worker who has been forced to take a child interstate to seek mental health treatment as a consequence of the appalling lack of mental health professionals in the ACT, particularly in the field of child and adolescent mental health. I respectfully suggest that in a jurisdiction as prosperous as the Chief Minister continually claims the ACT is, with a Minister for Mental Health and a promised long-delayed office for mental health, this situation is inexcusable.
The union representing doctors at Canberra Hospital has claimed that the safety of patients in the adult mental health unit is at risk because there are not enough psychiatrists and psychologists. Families who wish to see their children well again are forced to travel hundreds of kilometres to seek help because it is simply not available here. Seriously, how can this be? We are the nation’s capital.
Meanwhile, the number of children and young people who are in need of mental health services is increasing. As we learned just last month, Menslink has now opened its services to primary school-age boys with those aged 10 to 12 years old now making up 12 per cent of the support group’s client case. I am grateful for the counselling and other services that an organisation like Menslink can provide but where do these boys go? Where will other young Canberrans go if they need professional services in this territory?
Clearly, this Assembly should note the crippling shortage of mental health professionals that is leaving some of our most vulnerable without support or hope. The residents of Canberra deserve an explanation about what this government is doing in practical terms to provide the services that patients need now.
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