Page 405 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 22 March 2022
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MS DAVIDSON: That is a very fair question. There are a range of supports that are available to people who are in the Tuggeranong area who need mental health support and wellbeing support. This includes headspace in Tuggeranong as well as the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services for young people who are needing a bit of extra support. I note, as well, that the CAMHS Southside service to the end of February only had an eight-day wait for a first appointment, which is called a CHOICE appointment. This is quite helpful to people who are looking to get access to a service and find out what else they might need.
There is also the adolescent intensive home treatment team, who help to reduce the number of people who end up in the emergency department for crisis care. They have had 577 referrals from the time they started in March of 2021 through to the end of February 2022. We also have services like HAART, the Home Assessment and Acute Response Team, who take a lot of referrals for rapid response from community referrals or from the Access Mental Health line, but they are also receiving increasing referrals directly from GPs. There will be a number of GPs in the Tuggeranong area who are making use of that service.
The PACER service has also been helping a lot of people on the south side to reduce their need to go to a hospital for acute care. We also have a step-up, step-down service in Kambah for young people aged 18 to 25 years. And we have the MindMap service, which is an online portal for young people, which I was talking about this morning. It also has youth workers who are available by phone or online text to help young people who are waiting for their first appointment or to help them to find the right service for what their individual needs are. I am investigating the need for more prevention and early intervention services. (Time expired.)
MS CLAY: I have a supplementary question. Minister, could you outline your vision for future priorities for the mental health system in Canberra.
MS DAVIDSON: Yes. Continuing on with the work that was started by Minister Rattenbury with the Office for Mental Health and Wellbeing, we are continuing to look at ways we can deliver more prevention and early intervention services to people who are in the community, helping them to solve problems before they reach an acute-care crisis.
There are a range of ways that we are doing that. You will have seen that some of those things have been coming to fruition with things like more step-up, step-down services, more funding for our community sector and NGO partners who are delivering services to people with specific needs in the community, and more services that can be delivered to people without their having to go to hospital. The more we can do that the more people will be able to avoid going to a hospital in-patient service and will be able to solve their problems and stay in a recovery space for longer.
Public housing—maintenance
MR PARTON: My question is to the Minister for Housing and Suburban Development. Minister, the national A Current Affair television program recently
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