❓ Mr. L'Estrange asks about gaps in mental health services for individuals with challenging behaviours. The Minister outlines government plans, including investment in facilities and services, particularly in regional areas, and addresses the issue of mental health in the prison system.
AnsweredQoN 656Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM
656. Mr S.K. L'ESTRANGE to the Minister for Mental
Health:
The state's Chief
Psychiatrist, Dr Nathan Gibson, highlights in his annual report that there are
significant gaps in the mental health system for individuals with mental
illness and challenging behaviours. Will the minister please outline to the
house the significant gaps and his priorities for addressing them?
656. Mr S.K. L'ESTRANGE to the Minister for Mental
Health:
The state's Chief
Psychiatrist, Dr Nathan Gibson, highlights in his annual report that there are
significant gaps in the mental health system for individuals with mental
illness and challenging behaviours. Will the minister please outline to the
house the significant gaps and his priorities for addressing them?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question.
The Chief Psychiatrist is referring, in his annual report, to his concerns
about a small cohort of patients who have severe and complex mental illness,
and too often end up in our prison system. That is a sad reality of the present
situation. We all know that mental health is a complex area and presents a broad
range of multilayered and interlinked problems, varying in severity. As the
member knows, the government has a plan for mental health, around prevention
and reducing the incidence of suicide, and particularly around investing
heavily in subacute, step up, step down facilities. We have an ambitious
program that will see the development of step up, step down facilities in your
town, Mr Speaker—the City of Albany—and Kalgoorlie, Geraldton,
Karratha and Broome. We have made significant investment to make sure that we
can intervene early in people's mental health journeys to make sure we
get the proper services to them on time.
It is true to say that there are
still some people who suffer from very acute levels of mental illness, and we
have to do better for them as well. One thing we are doing, as part of our
election commitment, is investing in acute mental health services at the
Geraldton Regional Hospital site, as well as a project that I would hope both
sides of Parliament would be committed to—the renewal and redevelopment
of Graylands, and the adoption of a new model of care in the community for
patients at Graylands. In addition to that, we are investing in excess of $11 million
to put a mental health observation area in Royal Perth Hospital, just like at
Joondalup Health Campus, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, and Fiona Stanley
Hospital, because we understand that patients coming into our emergency
departments nowadays are presenting with a much higher incidence of mental
illness.
We will continue to be confronted with the growing issues of
mental illness in our community, and we will continue to invest heavily in it.
In the 2017–18 financial year we have invested $917 million, and that
will go up to almost $1 billion by 2020–21. We are seeing growth in our
mental health budget.�
We are seeing an increasing effort to make sure that we have
better services in the regions and in communities to provide subacute mental
health services. We will continue to work hard to ensure that we support all
families and individuals impacted by mental health issues.
The Chief Psychiatrist is referring, in his annual report, to his concerns
about a small cohort of patients who have severe and complex mental illness,
and too often end up in our prison system. That is a sad reality of the present
situation. We all know that mental health is a complex area and presents a broad
range of multilayered and interlinked problems, varying in severity. As the
member knows, the government has a plan for mental health, around prevention
and reducing the incidence of suicide, and particularly around investing
heavily in subacute, step up, step down facilities. We have an ambitious
program that will see the development of step up, step down facilities in your
town, Mr Speaker—the City of Albany—and Kalgoorlie, Geraldton,
Karratha and Broome. We have made significant investment to make sure that we
can intervene early in people's mental health journeys to make sure we
get the proper services to them on time.
It is true to say that there are
still some people who suffer from very acute levels of mental illness, and we
have to do better for them as well. One thing we are doing, as part of our
election commitment, is investing in acute mental health services at the
Geraldton Regional Hospital site, as well as a project that I would hope both
sides of Parliament would be committed to—the renewal and redevelopment
of Graylands, and the adoption of a new model of care in the community for
patients at Graylands. In addition to that, we are investing in excess of $11 million
to put a mental health observation area in Royal Perth Hospital, just like at
Joondalup Health Campus, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, and Fiona Stanley
Hospital, because we understand that patients coming into our emergency
departments nowadays are presenting with a much higher incidence of mental
illness.
We will continue to be confronted with the growing issues of
mental illness in our community, and we will continue to invest heavily in it.
In the 2017–18 financial year we have invested $917 million, and that
will go up to almost $1 billion by 2020–21. We are seeing growth in our
mental health budget.�
We are seeing an increasing effort to make sure that we have
better services in the regions and in communities to provide subacute mental
health services. We will continue to work hard to ensure that we support all
families and individuals impacted by mental health issues.
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