Wednesday, 30 August 2023

Albury–Wodonga adolescent mental health services

Bill TILLEY (Benambra) (19:09): (325) I wish to raise a matter for the attention of the Minister for Mental Health, and the action I seek is for the minister to urgently approve and fund eight acute inpatient beds for adolescent mental health at Albury Wodonga Health. There are a lot of people suffering – families throughout the district – but at present there are nil, none, nada of these adolescent beds in the district. These beds are for adolescents who present with acute episodes of mental illness on the border.

Let me give you one example. Mac – that is not his real name – has homicidal ideations and has begun acting on those thoughts. He actually wants to murder somebody. He no longer goes to school. He requires hypervigilance from his parents, and they have exhausted all their leave entitlements. In fact Mac’s father works in the disability sector. He no longer sees his psychiatrist in face-to-face consults after he tried to strangle him. He recognises these thoughts but struggles when it comes to preventing himself from acting on them. During a recent episode Mac, this teenager, presented at Albury Wodonga Health emergency department because there are no beds for his condition and the mental health inpatient services we do have are for adults. You can imagine that adults with mental ill health would need to be involuntarily placed in these places for a whole range of issues, but they are not for those adolescents that require therapeutic treatment. He was confined to a bed in emergency for two days. His mother had to sit by the bedside because there were no specialists available to supervise or treat her son for two days. Mac was transferred to Box Hill, which is an acute adolescent mental health facility and, from the border, is our default option, but after three days he was discharged with some pills and no therapy.

The impact on the families, friends, schools and communities is devastating. The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System was quite clear on the need for treatment to be close to home. It was also clear on the dire lack of acute inpatient beds for adolescent mental ill health in country Victoria. In country Victoria we only have 25 per cent of the population but we do not have a single bed. In rural and regional Victoria those under 25 are in desperate need. I want something simple: I want eight beds in Albury–Wodonga. I am informed these beds should be in increments of four – that is why I am asking for eight. It is the best way to create, manage and staff specialist teams, and it is the best way to help our young people. I thank the minister for hearing me today for a short time.