Page 1556 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 8 May 2018
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The ACT Office for Disability has been contributing significant expertise to the national work on improving pathways for people with psychosocial disability in the NDIS. The Office for Disability will continue to work collaboratively with the National Disability Insurance Agency and will engage closely with the office for mental health and wellbeing to ensure a coordinated approach to improving outcomes for NDIS participants with a psychosocial disability.
The ACT has a range of great mental health programs and services that are staffed by a dedicated and passionate workforce. However, I do think it is fair to say that what I often see is a number of high-quality services as opposed to a well-integrated system. I have gone on the record in this Assembly acknowledging this fact. I have already spoken about the development of the office for mental health and wellbeing in the Assembly several times, starting back in September 2017. As I have outlined previously, the integration and coordination of services will be a key function of the office. As such, the office is a key part of our strategy to simplify the array of mental health services that are available in the ACT.
However, the office for mental health and wellbeing is not the only work that the ACT government is undertaking in this space. I want to reiterate that while I believe the office will play a vital role in reform, it will not and cannot be the sole mechanism for improving our mental health system. The government is aware of this and that is why we are not standing still but have instead continued to invest in services on the ground.
Over recent months I have made a number of announcements about investing in community and specialist mental health services for the Canberra community. One example was the $100,000 the government provided to Menslink to provide two additional counsellors, allowing them to expand their services to boys aged 10 to12. This is in response to the increasing demand for services from children in younger age groups and will ensure that we can provide services for vulnerable young people at the earliest possible opportunity.
The government has also expanded access to our child and adolescent public mental health services, with the CAMHS consultation and liaison service at the Canberra Hospital now providing services seven days a week. We have also expanded the perinatal mental health consultation service, with specialised psychiatric clinics having been increased from one day to three days a week.
Recently we also announced $200,000 of funding to Headspace Canberra to improve access and to reduce wait times for early intervention mental health services. This funding will see Headspace deliver “onespace” solutions-based therapy for young people aged 12 to 25, providing a timely response when it is needed rather than allowing issues to build up while the young person is waiting to get support.
At the system level, as members will know, the ACT government is developing the territory-wide health services framework. It is a high-level strategic plan that establishes the overarching principles to guide the development and redesign of healthcare services across the territory over the next decade.
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