Oakden Mental Health Facility

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (15:11): Can the minister outline to the house what steps she has taken, or in fact the Chief Psychiatrist has taken, to inform all the families of potential residents affected by the management of that facility about the review that was underway?

The Hon. L.A. VLAHOS (Taylor—Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse) (15:12): What I can tell the house is that we have made every endeavour during the whole process to keep in contact regularly with the families and the residents of Oakden and their carers. Once the review was underway, the Chief Psychiatrist held meetings with them. That is documented in the report, for those people who have read the report, and we have continued to communicate with them. In fact, all the residents and their carers have had a number of meetings over the preceding period since the report's release. Those meetings are ongoing. I can list them in detail, if you would like that.

I can reassure you that those conversations and the support of those families and the residents are ongoing and intense. There is a hotline that has been opened by SA Health, where 21 calls have been made, and those have been personally addressed by Jackie Hanson in the NALHN framework. Everyone has a copy of the report; it was couriered to them. We have had a number of multiple meetings, and we will continue to update the house and the people of South Australia about the actions we are taking to improve the state of Oakden. It is considerable progress that we have made and will continue to make.