Tuesday, 2 August 2022

 Ms VALLENCE (Evelyn) (19:04): (6458) The matter I raise is for the Minister for Mental Health on behalf of the Lilydale Youth Hub and the thousands of young people and their families in my community that rely on the vital services provided by the Lilydale Youth Hub. The action I seek is for the government to provide a desperately needed $1.5 million in funding for at least a 12-month period, if not the amount required for the three-year funding model, to ensure the Lilydale Youth Hub can continue to provide vital mental health and wellbeing services to local young people and their families as well as provide the certainty to staff and ensure that they can continue their critical role in managing clinical risk.

The Lilydale Youth Hub supports Yarra Ranges youth from Lilydale, Mooroolbark, Montrose, Coldstream and Gruyere, including in my colleague the member for Eildon’s electorate, right through the Yarra Valley and the Dandenong Ranges and reduces the burden on the broader health and community sector through an integrated case-management model. By offering a single entry point of access to no- or low-cost primary health care, community and social services they have kept thousands of local young people out of tertiary mental health and justice systems. It is led by Inspiro community health, and I thank Sue Sestan and her team for their dedication and vision. Inspiro partners with trusted effective local organisations Anchor, Cire Services, Oonah Health and Community Services Aboriginal Corporation, and Eastern Community Legal Centre, but funding and service delivery for the Lilydale Youth Hub is due to cease on 31 December this year and it is facing closure. The prospect of losing this local mental health service is devastating and poses a significant clinical risk to clients, who face losing a key local service and valuable connections, and there are currently over 100 young people who would be required to be discharged into a mental health system that is already at capacity.

The Lilydale Youth Hub was initially funded under the commonwealth government’s community health and hospital program, and I thank the former federal Liberal government for funding it. Astonishingly and disappointingly, the new Albanese Labor government has left the Lilydale Youth Hub with an uncertain future because it has refused to provide any further funding after December, and requests of the Andrews Labor government have so far fallen on deaf ears. On a day when we have been addressing the Mental Health and Wellbeing Bill 2022 in this Parliament the Andrews Labor government has done nothing to offer funding for this Lilydale Youth Hub service, and I call on the minister to urgently investigate and provide this funding for youth mental health services across the Yarra Valley, Dandenong Ranges and Lilydale district.