Page 775 - Week 03 - Thursday, 2 April 2020
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We are in the process at the moment of putting further work together on what a detailed mental health plan will look like going forward. We are assessing what the commonwealth has announced and what impact that will have because, as the Chief Minister has indicated, there is a considerable effort to coordinate between the national government and the territory government to make sure that, with the significant demands that are on our resources, we are not duplicating. Given the commonwealth announcement at the weekend, we are going through the details of that and I expect to be able to provide further information to members of the Assembly and the community in the near future on a detailed mental health plan for the rest of the year.
MR MILLIGAN: Minister, what online mental health services are you rolling out to meet the demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, and will patients continue to need a mental health treatment plan in order to be able to access those services?
MR RATTENBURY: In terms of online treatment services, if I understand Mr Milligan’s question correctly, there are a range of websites and applications that are available to anybody in the community. They are designed for a range of needs. Organisations such as Beyond Blue, Lifeline, the Black Dog Institute and others have a range of resources available. Headspace has online resources targeted at younger people. They have developed a specific COVID-19 advice sheet. So in that sense the ACT government is not developing its own online resources. We are, as you can see from the COVID-19 website that the ACT government launched this week, directing people towards those other resources. There is no point in reinventing the wheel.
If I understand the other possible interpretation of the question, our health services are increasingly providing services online to people in the environment of having to have physical distancing. People are still able to have consultations through online services and online portals; similarly to organisations like Headspace, they are taking similar measures. So on both fronts there is a significant move to digital. We are seeking to adapt, as many other organisations and business are across the country, to provide more online services in the context we find ourselves.
Homelessness—COVID-19
MRS KIKKERT: My question is to the Minister for Housing and Suburban Development. Minister, you indicated earlier in question time that you are expecting an increase in homelessness and rough sleepers because of this crisis. What is your expectation of the scale of that increase?
MS BERRY: That is very hard to define at the moment. We are paying very close attention to the data that is coming in from our homelessness support services, as well as OneLink. In fact, a lot of things happened last week with regard to COVID-19, so OneLink did see a significant increase in contacts for a number of supports, including housing, but this week it has gone down to more normal numbers. We are keeping a very close eye on it.
We are also ramping up all of our existing services, such as the Axial Housing one for rough sleepers, to get more rough sleepers into accommodation, and wrapping around supports to support them through some of the complex issues they are experiencing.
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