Adelaide Hills Mental Health Services

Ms O'HANLON (Dunstan) (15:14): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Can the minister provide an update on mental health services in the Adelaide Hills?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:15): I thank the member for her question in relation to mental health services in the Adelaide Hills. I was delighted in the past couple of weeks to be at the opening of the new Medicare Mental Health service, which is now open in Mount Barker and something I know the member for Kavel is very excited by. This is a new walk-in service which is available for the community as an alternative to emergency departments for people suffering mental health distress in the Adelaide Hills and broader region.

This is a joint effort between the Malinauskas Labor government and also the Albanese federal government and shows a very strong cooperation between those two levels of government to see this centre open. It is being operated by Summit Health, which is a longstanding provider of health services in the Adelaide Hills and it offers free walk-in confidential mental health support, with no waiting list or referrals needed, in a safe and welcoming space. Importantly, this is a space which is not like a hospital emergency department; it is a welcoming, relaxed, homelike environment for people to get the care that they need.

The team who have been employed in providing these services now include nursing staff, qualified mental health clinicians, and peer support workers with lived experience. There is a range of services provided, including immediate help for those in distress and ongoing care for people with complex mental health needs. The centre provides support for carers and families of people with mental health needs and referrals to other services, including further mental health services, housing and employment. It is open extended hours from 9:00am to 7:00pm Monday to Wednesday and 9:00am to 8:00pm on Thursday and Friday and will be opening on the weekends shortly.

This is now a part of a network of these services across the state and across the country. There are now five of these centres that have been opened between the South Australian and federal governments over the past few years. We have centres now in Mount Gambier, Port Pirie, Elizabeth and in the city as well. This is not all; this is the beginning, because we have seen recently the Albanese federal Labor Party announcing their intentions—if delivered victory on the weekend—to open even more of these centres as well.

We will see an additional centre open in the eastern suburbs of Adelaide and an additional centre open in Marion and, excitingly for my constituents, an additional centre open in the Onkaparinga council area as well. There will now be a very strong network of these centres which shows the level of cooperation that we have had with the federal health minister, Mark Butler, to see that happen. That was part of a $1 billion mental health investment that has been announced in recent days by the federal Labor Party.

Of course, that investment, in terms of Adelaide Hills mental health care, comes on top of the investment that we are already making for construction of the new Mount Barker Hospital as well. Very importantly, that hospital will have 12 new mental health beds within it, the first inpatient mental health services to be delivered in the Adelaide Hills. That really provides that whole gamut of mental health services for people in the Adelaide Hills. For lower complexity walk-in services, they are able to go to the Medicare Mental Health service. For the high complexity inpatient services we are building, as part of the new Mount Barker Hospital, the ability for people to get that care locally for the first time.

This is essentially very important and it comes on top of our investments in other community services as well: psychosocial services, services which previously faced a cut under the previous government of 19 per cent, whereas we have now increased funding for those services to 24 per cent, so we are committed to improving our mental health services and will continue to do so.