Tuesday, 3 October 2023

Adjournment

Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice, Minister for Victim Support) (17:26): I move:

That the house do now adjourn.

Mental health

Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (17:26): (463) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Mental Health, and it relates to the challenges many young people face, particularly in Ballarat, regarding their mental health and wellbeing. I am aware that the government is developing a wellbeing plan for Victorians, and my understanding is that work is being undertaken by the mental health and wellbeing promotion office. That plan is to be released later in 2023.

The action I seek is simple: please release the draft plan asap so that all Victorians can see it, particularly younger people, and ensure that it best reflects the aspirations and hopes of younger people, particularly those in my electorate. Comments should be open to all, I would hope. There are a number of statistics and anecdotes – we could all quote them – that are out there, but mental health is an extremely big challenge for young people. There are clear indications that poor mental health can have a number of negative impacts across the board. One of the ones that has been spoken about quite a lot locally in Ballarat is the propensity and more likelihood that it adds to the rate of suicide, which I think we can all agree is completely horrible, particularly when a young person ends their life prematurely. It is just horrible.

I met with some very brave and intelligent young people who raised this matter with me recently, and the way that they spoke about their experiences was so insightful and thoughtful. They talked about some of the barriers that they have experienced in accessing mental health services. When you have got young people in high school, a lot of the stuff out of hours is not accessible because of the need for transport and those sorts of things. It makes it very, very difficult. It would be good to see more support for young people with their mental health, and probably the best area to do this is through the school network, because at least we know they are there from 9 until half past 3, or thereabouts, daily.

I know from when I was teaching that usually the standard practice is that a teacher is there to teach and impart knowledge, skills and all that sort of thing, but mental health and wellbeing have become so much more a part of the role in recent times. I think perhaps as part of teacher registration – this is something the minister might even consider – when teachers go to become registered they could be required to do mental health training, in particular mental health first aid training. It is quite often the case that physical first aid level 1 is done; perhaps mental health first aid could be a consideration for part of the registration process as well. That was a discussion that I had with a lot of young people. It would not be overly burdensome to administer that and put it into the Victorian Institute of Teaching registration aspects. I hope the minister hears those concerns loud and clear and that maybe those concerns might be taken on board so we can help young people get the help and support that they really need and deserve.