Thursday, 15 August 2019

In reply to  Ms BATH (Eastern Victoria) (7 June 2019)

Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Equality, Minister for Creative Industries):

The Andrews Labor Government supports integrated service delivery, ensuring high quality mental health services for residents of all ages within the Gippsland area.

Latrobe Regional Hospital offer a broad suite of public clinical mental health services, including inpatient (located in Traralgon), sub-acute, residential and eight community-based programs across the Gippsland region.

The 2018-19 State Budget delivered $705 million for more mental health support. This included $232.4 million to support 89 new and existing acute inpatient beds and boost the number of treatment hours in community-based services, giving around 12,800 more Victorians the care, they require.

The Hospital Outreach Post-Suicidal Engagement (HOPE) initiative, currently underway at six hospitals, provides intensive, tailored support for people leaving hospital following treatment for an attempted suicide. As at May 2019 more than 1900 people have been supported through the HOPE program across the state.

The 2018-19 Budget allocated an additional $18.7 million to expand the HOPE to a further six sites across Victoria, including Latrobe Regional Hospital, which began operating in February 2019. The addition of the HOPE program at Latrobe Regional Hospital will complement their existing Suicide Prevention Pathway (SPP) and significantly expand access to aftercare services for people following a suicide attempt or self-harm attempt. It is expected, based on other HOPE sites that Latrobe Regional Hospital will be able to support approximately 120 to 150 people per year.

The Andrews Labor Government is building on last year’s record mental health investment, investing a further $172.8 million in the 2019-20 State Budget to ensure Victorians with mental illness get better treatment and care, closer to home. Since 2014-15, funding for regional health services has increased by 35.5%.

The Victorian Government has established a Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, the first of its kind in Australia. The Royal Commission represents a once in a generation opportunity to find out what parts of Victoria’s Mental Health System are working and what parts are not.

The Royal Commission will identify gaps in prevention, access and support for people with lived experience of mental illness, family members and carers. From this, we will know what needs to be done to improve the system and achieve better outcomes.

The Terms of Reference for the Royal Commission specifically asks it to inquire into and report on how to improve mental health outcomes for rural and regional communities. The Victorian Government has committed to implementing all the recommendations of the Royal Commission.

Meaningful and lasting changes to Victoria’s mental health system and improvements to mental health outcomes can only happen by listening and respecting the views of Victorian communities. The Royal Commission is committed to hearing from as many different people as possible and are providing multiple ways for people to share their experiences and make contributions.

The Royal Commission ran more than 60 community consultation sessions during April 2019 and May 2019 in over 20 locations, including rural, regional and metropolitan areas. Over 1,600 people participated in the sessions.