Page 1272 - Week 05 - Thursday, 4 June 2020

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(b) the ACT Government has continuously invested in improvements to mental health services to ensure better integration of hospital-based and community services;

(d) the Minister for Mental Health established the Office for Mental Health and Wellbeing, whose 2019 co-designed work plan is intended to help achieve better integration of services;

(e) since 2016, the Mental Health Short Stay Unit, Dhulwa Mental Health Unit, the Extended Care Unit, and the Adult Mental Health Rehabilitation Unit in-patient facilities have opened, providing greater options for mental health treatment in the ACT;

(f) since 2016, the ACT Government has committed and secured funding for a new Southside Community Step Up Step Down facility, a new model of joint emergency services mental health response—Police, Ambulance and Clinical Early Response, five new supported accommodation facilities, the Adolescent Mental Health Unit, and an eating disorders centre;

(g) in 2018, the Home Assessment and Acute Response Team commenced to provide intensive support for people in their homes to either avoid an acute admission or to support early discharge following an admission and, in 2019, the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Assertive Mobile Outreach Services provided assessment and treatment for adolescents aged 13-18 with moderate to severe mental illness;

(h) in 2018, the CAMHS Consultation and Liaison Service at The Canberra Hospital paediatric adolescent ward and the CAMHS Hospital Liaison Team in the Emergency Department were expanded to provide services seven days per week;

(i) there has been significant investment in community sector services which complement the public health services system;

(j) by 2018-19, there had been a 137 percent increase in mental health presentations to The Canberra Hospital Emergency Department since 2014-15 but, despite this, there has been a 42.7 percent decrease in waiting times for people with a mental illness and a 36.9 percent decrease in waiting times for people with a serious mental illness;

(k) the Adult Mental Health Unit has seen a 32 percent reduction in the number of reported occupational violence staff incidents between November 2019 and January 2020 when compared with the same quarter in 2018-19; and

(l) the Safewards program is being trialled in ACT public mental health which is highly effective in reducing and containing conflict and increasing a sense of safety and mutual support for staff and patients;

(3) refers to reviews undertaken or underway in the mental health portfolio just in this Assembly term, including:

(a) 2017—Review of Mental Health Service at Alexander Maconochie Centre;

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