Page 64 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 12 February 2019
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During question time, I was asked about specialist homelessness services available during Christmas and the New Year period. I can advise the chamber that over this period each homelessness service has a plan in place to assist people experiencing homelessness. This includes refuges providing an on-call response for existing clients.
OneLink was open every day except Christmas and New Year’s Day. Rough sleepers supported by Street to Home were provided with a letter and contact details for Samaritan House if they required assistance. The Domestic Violence Crisis Service Christmas program provided short-term accommodation for people experiencing and escaping domestic violence over the Christmas and New Year period. The Early Morning Centre provided food services every day except Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, and they provided information services to clients during the holiday periods, as well as hampers to other guests that visited that service. The Blue Door also provided free food and was open except for Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
Mental health—patient follow-up
MR RATTENBURY: During question time Mrs Dunne asked me a question about the discharge of mental health patients to homelessness, and she specifically referenced an occasion that she had asked me about in August last year.
Having now had a chance to review the correspondence of the time, I am pleased to update the Assembly by saying that Mrs Dunne and I and my chief of staff had some correspondence at the time. My chief of staff emailed Mrs Dunne in response to her memo. She said:
We totally agree, that it would be inappropriate to discharge a patient—either from hospital, or the mental health unit, into homelessness. However, we have confirmation from ACT Health that this isn’t the case, and they don’t do this. Health have been very clear with us that any patient—either in hospital or the AMHU must have a house to go to, and they do have a duty of care in these situations.
In relation to the specific matter that Mrs Dunne raised around a particular patient, that particular patient was not actually admitted to hospital in the week before the question and thus did not come under the Health protocol of not releasing without a housing plan. However, my office undertook to follow up with the housing minister and seek support from homelessness services for the particular individual.
Given that that explanation was given to Mrs Dunne in August last year, I am surprised that she has used that example as the premise of her question today.
Papers
Madam Speaker presented the following papers:
Inspector of Correctional Services Act, pursuant to subsection 30(2)—Report of a Review of a Critical Incident by the ACT Inspector of Correctional Services—Assault of a detainee at the Alexander Maconochie Centre on 25 October 2018, dated 18 January 2019.
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