Page 164 - Week 02 - Thursday, 25 May 1989
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In order to fulfil the commitment expressed by most members of this Assembly to this important health issue, I will discuss it with the Minister and propose an inquiry into these issues.
MR WOOD (11.46): We support this motion. I know we shall all do so because it is important and indicates the need to attend to critical conditions suffered by some in our community.
If I can go back a little, Canberrans from the early days have been quite active in looking after their own health and the health of their colleagues in Canberra. When Canberra was first established or being established, this was a necessity because the facilities were simply not available in the capital to provide proper health care. A number of significant self-help groups were established, and it is interesting to note that some of the very well-known groups in Canberra today can date their history back to the 1920s. Of course, as the city grew and the population enlarged, the complexities surrounding health care also grew, but so did the number of groups working in this area. In particular, in the last ten years since I came to Canberra I have noticed that the number of specialised health care groups has greatly increased.
There are, as we know, a considerable number of groups and a very large number of people working towards promoting the health of their fellow citizens. The Schizophrenia Association is just one of those. As a member in the last two years of the former Community Development Fund Advisory Committee, I have been well aware of the number of groups urgently needing funds. Sometimes they have been able to claim them; at other times, regretfully, they have been unsuccessful. But that demonstrated the fairly long partnership between government and community groups in providing welfare to those in the community that needed it.
I was very pleased to hear the Minister's announcement today that he is taking action to see that a 24-hour crisis handling facility is to be made available. Most of us who are fairly active in the community have at some stage experienced the need to assist someone with schizophrenia or other mental health problems. We have found that facilities are not always available to handle such cases. Mr Moore mentioned some statistics on mental health. I note that nearly a third of all mental health cases going into our hospitals suffer from schizophrenia. A year or two ago there were something like 300 cases of hospitalisation concerning schizophrenia. That alone is a very large problem in the area of mental health.
It is important to have time to concentrate our attention on these matters. Many groups have a week or a day in which attention can be so drawn, and I think this might set some sort of precedent in this chamber that we acknowledge that particular day or week. It is fitting that we should do so today and set that precedent.
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