Page 1267 - Week 05 - Thursday, 4 June 2020
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I would like to start by acknowledging all the consumers and carers in our community. I particularly thank those that regularly contribute their time in giving feedback to the government to help guide service delivery improvement and enhancement.
I by no means wish to stand here today and suggest everything is perfect; I never have sought to do that. I have been steadfast and determined to deliver on the promises of the government to improve mental health services for Canberrans. In fact, it was my former colleague Greens member Amanda Bresnan who, in 2008, drew out a lot of issues and challenges in the mental health system and instigated many important reforms in this space.
I am concerned that Mrs Dunne has underpinned the premise of her motion on the mechanics of the adult mental health unit. I must remind Mrs Dunne and all members of the chamber that the adult mental health unit is just one single component of the entire mental health system and that focusing so directly on it would be doing a disservice to improving the broader mental health system.
In my ministerial statement on mental health late last year, I advised the Assembly of the following regarding waiting times, sometimes referred to as bed block, as has been discussed today. At the time, I said to members that in 2018-19 there had been a 137 per cent increase in mental health presentations to Canberra Hospital emergency department since 2014-15, but that, despite this, there had been data that showed that since 2014-15 there had been a 42.7 per cent decrease in waiting times for people with a mental illness and a 36.9 per cent decrease in waiting times for people with a serious mental illness. I think this demonstrates the determination to improve the patient experience and journey when attending the Canberra Hospital, particularly in the context of that extraordinary increase in numbers of presentations, which really underlines the enormity of the improvements that have been made in that space.
It is true that RoGS data shows that for adults discharged from acute mental health care the ACT has a below average proportion of people who report improvement in their condition. This data is calculated through the completion of the self-reported health of the nation outcome scales, HoNOS, which records the health and social functioning of people with mental illness at admission and discharge.
While this indicator in RoGS compares the rates of improvement or deterioration during admission, it does not include information on the relative severity of these admissions. Consequently, care should be taken when interpreting these figures and comparing averages between jurisdictions, as it would be expected that people who are admitted with more severe mental illness would be expected to show a lower rate of improvement than those with less severe mental illness.
It is also important to note that other jurisdictions have a greater number of private inpatient beds and transitional beds, which often means lower acuity and greater insight into illness. A further contributing factor is that the ACT has a higher proportion of acute beds, and thus there is also a higher proportion of admissions that are of an involuntary nature or status.
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