Wednesday, 4 March 2020

Ballarat region mental health services

Ms SETTLE (Buninyong) (19:15): (1981) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Mental Health. The action I seek is for the minister to come to Ballarat to meet with mental health professionals to discuss the interim report from the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.

On 24 October 2018 the Andrews Labor government announced that Victoria would hold the country’s first royal commission into mental health. The royal commission commenced in 2019 as promised, and has received over 3200 submissions and held public hearings in regional areas right across Victoria. With an issue as important as mental health it was critical that anybody who wanted to have a say in the royal commission was given the opportunity to do so. Those from the Ballarat region had the opportunity to provide input at a well-attended public consultation in April last year.

The royal commission’s interim report into the mental health system was indicative of a system in crisis. It found there were over 100 000 years of expected life lost due to suicide and a cost to the Victorian economy of $14.2 billion annually.

After such a successful public consultation in Ballarat I am very aware of how important improved mental health services are to the Ballarat region. Given the success of the royal commission in highlighting many of the failings within our mental health system, I would like to see what can be done in our region to improve local services.

I would like to request that the Minister for Mental Health come to Ballarat to engage with local mental health providers and stakeholders in a roundtable meeting. I want to see the Ballarat region set the standard for mental health care in regional Victoria. I believe that an open and frank discussion between local providers and the minister would be of great assistance in achieving that for our community.