Page 214 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 February 2018
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debate. Some people have said we should discuss it for longer. Let us bear in mind that in relation to the Mental Health Act—Mrs Dunne will remember this, I think, and she might correct me—I think there was six years development or thereabouts, five, six, something like that. People know this is a really difficult space. There are challenging stakeholder questions to work through, and I think the time frame we are working to is appropriate, trying to find the balance between allowing enough time for the conversation and getting on with the job.
At 6 pm, in accordance with standing order 34, the debate was interrupted. The motion for the adjournment of the Assembly having been put and negatived, the debate was resumed.
MR RATTENBURY: I believe the office will be most successful if it has the right relationships and buy-in from people across the mental health sector. It is a significant opportunity for us to re-evaluate how we do things in mental health services in the territory, and it is not an opportunity we can waste. It is also not an opportunity that we are prepared to rush, leading to the delivery of something not quite right, even if it could be delivered a little faster.
From the preliminary results of the consultations, it is clear that the community wants the office to provide some key things: leadership and the capacity to articulate a vision for mental health in the ACT in the 21st century. They want stewardship, the capacity to take responsibility for the process of systemic quality improvement in mental health. They want change management, based on an intimate understanding of the process of clinical service and policy decision-making in relation to mental health in the ACT. They want collaboration, the capacity to build effective teams and deliver outcomes. They want analytics, the skills to understand what is going on and what is changing. And they want reporting and feedback, the capacity to develop useful reports and feedback mechanisms for services for government and for the community.
That is a challenging list. It is a big job to work on some of those things, but we are determined to take that on. We are not shy of getting stuck into some of those challenging areas. I have been pleased to see such active engagement in the consultation process from across the mental health sector. I am grateful for the commitment of time, energy and expertise that people have contributed to the discussion. It is clear that the office will have a lot to do. I look forward to having it in place soon so that we can get down to the task at hand.
Whilst the office is a key priority for me this year, the government is not standing still when it comes to mental health. We are continuing to invest in improving mental health services on the ground. There is plenty of other work going on. I can assure members of the opposition that we are not standing still. These services will make an immediate difference to people across Canberra in the short term while allowing the office to undertake the longer-term strategic assessment of a mental health system.
As is outlined in my amendment to Mrs Dunne’s motion, the 2017-18 budget included $23.8 million to improve mental health services in the ACT. This included $1.8 million towards suicide prevention support services; $13.8 million to deliver new rehabilitation beds at the Dhulwa mental health unit; $5.3 million for
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