Grievance Debate

Mental Health Services

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (15:06): I rise on a very important issue for South Australia and for services, particularly in the mental health area across South Australia, namely, the funding threat we have seen with the introduction of the NDIS. It is a funding threat from the commonwealth government that is hitting mental health services in South Australia and other states, and we have seen no action from this state government to address that.

There are now 10 days to go until this funding threat looms on 1 July, and on that date we are going to see 150 mental health workers across South Australia lose their jobs. We are going to see thousands of South Australian mental health patients and clients lose vital services that are keeping them well and healthy and out of hospital. We are going to see some 23 organisations lose their funding to provide these important services or have their funding significantly diminished to the point of being very stretched in being able to provide these services.

We know that when it comes to mental health the most important thing we can do is keep people healthy, in the community and out of hospital, through intervention services and through prevention services. That is exactly what these programs are doing in the community, but, sadly, what we have seen from the federal government is a combination of the cutting of these programs and a lack of ability for people to get access to the NDIS services.

The original promise from the federal government was that some 80 per cent of these mental health clients would be able to get a package of care from the NDIS. The reality is that we are seeing 80 per cent of those people unable to receive care from the NDIS. So, when the federal government has cut, by 80 per cent, a lot of these programs, they are still dealing with having to provide 80 per cent of those services to clients.

We knew that this was an issue before the election, and that is why we in the Labor Party and our now Leader of the Opposition, when he was the health minister, made a mental health services guarantee: we want to make sure that people in South Australia who need mental health services in the community should be guaranteed to have them provided and that, if they are ineligible for the NDIS, the state government should guarantee those services and should provide them.

Unfortunately, we did not see that commitment matched by those opposite who have formed government. Since then, we have not seen any action from them in intervening, with their special relationship that they supposedly have with the federal Liberal government, to take any action in terms of addressing this issue. We held a crisis stakeholder meeting a couple of weeks ago that I called, with the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Hurtle Vale and the shadow minister for human services, together with the Mental Health Coalition of South Australia and the Australian Services Union.

We had representatives from programs across the state. We had mental health workers and mental health clients there. They were all expressing to us the dire situation that those programs are in and, because of that, the situation the people are going to be in because of this. People were very frank. The fact that these programs are going to end is going to mean that people will not stay healthy in the community, that we will see more people going to emergency departments, that we will see more pressure on our homelessness services in the community and, sadly, we will see more self-harm in the community as well and potential tragedies in our community.

The time for action is now. We think that the Minister for Health and Wellbeing needs to take immediate action to intervene and ensure that these services continue over this interim period. At the very least, he needs to act now to intervene to ensure, for the next three months while negotiations can continue with the federal government, that these services are not cut off, that these 150 staff who are trained, skilled and providing services in South Australia right now, are able to continue their good work. It is not just in the city; it is right around South Australia. Regional areas will be particularly hard hit by these cuts that are about to face us.

I have also seen a whole range of other mental health services that do not receive this funding but are concerned about the impact that it is going to happen to them. Diamond House, which is a great initiative in the western suburbs I visited recently, are very concerned about what the impact is going to be on them. There is a petition circulating. I call on the government to take action and ensure these services continue.