APY Lands Mental Health Services

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (14:36): Again to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing: does the minister intend to provide permanent mental health support staff and community-based staff to the APY lands? With your leave, and that of the house, I will explain, sir.

Leave granted.

Mr WHETSTONE: The Chief Psychiatrist's review recommended that permanent mental health support staff and community-based staff be returned to the APY lands.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:36): As I outlined in my previous answer, we are returning staff to the APY lands. There are obviously significant challenges in terms of recruitment of people to be based on the lands; that is being worked through through the Women's and Children's Health Network at the moment. As I said, the finalisation of that model of care is underway. But there has been, in the past couple of months, actual services being delivered to people on the APY lands for the first time in 14 months.

I am advised that 5 September was the first time that those services had been provided in the past 14 months. Since then, about every two weeks there has been a weekly visit from service providers, and the finalisation of that model of care is underway at the moment. But to have a telehealth model, as was proposed previously, is completely unacceptable, is not going to work, and our desire is to have as many on-the-ground services as possible.