MENTAL HEALTH FACILITIES

Mr BIGNELL (Mawson) (14:48): My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Can the minister update the house on mental health bed numbers in South Australia?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (14:48): I thank the member for Mawson for this really important question. I am very pleased to inform the house that, by June this year, it is expected that there will be an extra 74 mental health beds and places operating in our state compared to 2007 before the stepping up reforms were started. Those increases include an extra 24 beds and places in the combined acute and intermediate care category—they are the most serious categories—and 50 beds and places in the rehabilitation and supported accommodation categories. A further 18 beds and places will come on line before June 2014 and that will bring to 92 the number of extra places and beds that we are creating. These will include limited treatment beds in the country where people can be treated for acute episodes, negating the need for transfer to Adelaide. I acknowledge the member for Mount Gambier who is regularly talking to me about these issues.

I am delighted that the total of 92 extra beds and places is six higher than the 86 we originally announced in response to the Social Inclusion Board's Stepping Up report, supported with more than $300 million of taxpayers' funds. SA Health has been able to build an extra six supported houses over and above the original bed plan, so that is a good outcome. In addition, the federal government is funding an extra 159 subacute beds and bed equivalents through a $79.4 million investment over four years, and we are very pleased to be working with them. These services are expected to progressively come online by 2013.

As members are aware, the Stepping Up report recommended a move towards new steps of mental health care, including the inclusion of some adult acute care beds into a new level of intermediate care. The net gain of 74 mental health beds and places takes into account the existing and planned closure of a number of adult acute beds at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Howard House, Noarlunga Hospital, Flinders Medical Centre and Glenside. We are closing down a smaller number of beds and opening up a larger number of beds in other places.

Three new intermediate care centres, each with 15 places, are now operating in metropolitan Adelaide, and a small number of places are now operating in country South Australia as well. These centres cater for people who need a higher level of care than that provided by community mental health teams, or provide a step down from high acuity mental health services as people recover—the stepping up approach. Supported accommodation places have also been introduced to allow people to live independently in a community-type setting while still receiving the care that they need.

In addition to these developments in mental health care in this state, a number of aged extended care beds have been transitioned to the residential aged care sector. This is the responsibility, of course, of the commonwealth government and is consistent with the practices of other jurisdictions and the recommendations of the Social Inclusion Board's report. I commend to all members of the house the outstanding work done by the mental health team within SA Health.