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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-06-10 Daily Xml
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COVID-19 Mental Health

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (14:59): I seek leave to make a brief explanation—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Stephens has the call.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing regarding mental health.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: Last year, our clinicians here in South Australia, across Australia and internationally have stepped up to combat the COVID-19 pandemic to the point where it has presented significant challenges, including to their mental health. Will the minister update the council on support for mental health among clinicians?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:00): I would like to thank the honourable member for his question. The Marshall Liberal government is firmly committed to supporting the wellbeing of our staff throughout the health system. We acknowledge their dedication and thank them for their contribution to the community. We also acknowledge that this dedication can result in stress on the staff working to keep the community well and safe. This has been heightened by additional pressures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

These pressures made the annual celebration of Crazy Socks 4 Docs an even more important occasion, and I was pleased to be able to join with clinicians last Friday to mark the day. Crazy Socks 4 Docs has grown enormously since its beginning in 2017, just four years ago, including international acknowledgement.

Research by Mental Health Australia, released in October last year, showed that over 70 per cent of healthcare workers surveyed said that their mental health and wellbeing had been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic; 67 per cent said that it had negatively affected their home life.

In a recent interview, the founder of Crazy Socks 4 Docs, Dr Geoff Toogood, compared the two effects of the pandemic, physical and mental, saying that healthcare workers had to be as careful of their psychological PPE as their physical PPE—of course, PPE meaning 'personal protective equipment'. This reminds us that clinicians and healthcare workers need to look after each other, acknowledging that they are not immune from mental health issues.

It also means the individual taking time and space for themselves to recharge, and it means colleagues understanding trigger points for being unwell. It also means that we need to make sure that our health systems, our workplace practices, give our workers the opportunity to recharge.

The idea for Crazy Socks 4 Docs came from Dr Toogood's own experience of the impact that colleagues can have. In his specific experience, it was a negative impact. He turned up at work one day with unmatched socks. Some colleagues began talking behind his back, attributing the 'crazy' socks to mental health issues. In fact, his puppy had chewed all his socks except those two, and so he had been forced to wear the only two socks left to him.

It was this experience that led Dr Toogood to found Crazy Socks 4 Docs, reminding clinicians of the support they can give each other as well as being able to acknowledge challenges themselves and seek the help they need. I was pleased to be able to stand with our clinicians yet again this year, with my own pair of crazy socks, and I want to assure all of our health teams of this government's commitment to their wellbeing.

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