Wednesday, 19 February 2020

Ministers statements: mental health reform

Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Equality, Minister for Creative Industries) (11:44): I rise to update the house further on the Andrews Labor government’s response to the crisis in our mental health system. We know that every year more than 1 million Victorians deal with a diagnosed mental illness. We know that that costs some $1.6 billion in lost productivity, it means $4.8 billion in forgone wages and it is the fastest growing claims area in workers compensation, with WorkSafe claims already reaching approximately $700 million per annum. We also know that this cannot really be measured in dollars. We know, for instance, that over 700 Victorians lost their lives by their own hand in 2018 through suicide and that over the last decade that toll has reached over 6000 Victorians. That is three times our road toll.

That is why last week I was so pleased to join the member for Shepparton and Goulburn Valley Health to talk about this government’s commitment to rolling out all the recommendations from the first report of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System and, in this instance, the extension of the HOPE program—the Hospital Outreach Post-suicidal Engagement program—into the member for Shepparton’s electorate and the surrounding communities. It is a program that we are quite keen on rolling out across the whole state. Can I say we are quite pleased that the federal government are looking to partner with us in ways and means of extending that further, not just throughout the state but indeed the whole commonwealth. That is because the Andrews Labor government is about delivering a 21st-century mental health system. This is a priority for the Andrews Labor government which was endorsed by Victorians, and we look forward to it always being the case that this government supports mental health.