Page 2832 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 14 August 2018
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with the knowledge and skills to better manage their own care, and it is about putting consumers and carers at the centre of our system.
In addition, as members would be aware, every year ACT Health partners with many non-government community service providers to provide specialist mental healthcare services. Our community partners are a critical part of the mental health sector providing prevention and treatment through recovery and ongoing support for those managing mental illness. Through this year’s budget ACT Health will fund 21 community groups to provide mental health services with around $10.4 million.
With my responsibilities for justice health I am also pleased to say that this year’s budget delivers a $6.3 million boost over four years to expand front-line health services at the Alexander Maconochie Centre. This funding will be used not only to provide more dental and more general practice services but also more mental health services to detainees.
In addition, $406,000 has been provisioned over the next two years on top of its previously committed base funding to extend the mental health detention exit community outreach program to help people leaving detention in the ACT with a diagnosed mental illness to re-establish themselves in the community. Results to date have been very encouraging with data showing significant reductions in rates of reoffending and positive outcomes in participants’ general health and wellbeing.
As I mentioned earlier, around a third of us living in the ACT will at some point in time reach out for help from a mental health service. A large proportion of these people will be family and friends who are supporting someone during a time of crisis or pain and who may need support of their own. I take this opportunity to recognise the significant role of both consumers and carers in our mental health system and reiterate the government’s commitment to continuing to work with them to ensure that our services are informed by and designed for people with lived experience in mental illness.
The rollout of initiatives in this year’s budget aligns with this commitment. With these initiatives, combined with the continuous improvements we are seeking to make to our services on an ongoing basis, we are ensuring that more Canberrans can access specialised high quality care when they or their loved ones are in need of support.
I want to particularly reflect on the role the community sector has played in shaping this year’s budget. Whether it is as community partners or in the ideas they have given to both the directorate and me over time, we can see that reflected in this year’s budget commitments. The recovery college is a particularly good example which will be led by the community. For me, this is a really important part of empowering both our community partners and also consumers and clients of the mental health system who bring that very important lived experience to these ideas. Through that they can help us to improve our services, to challenge what we are doing currently and to make sure we are offering the best possible services.
Before I close I must reflect on the comments Mrs Dunne made regarding a conversation we had outside the chamber following the recent debate on bullying in
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