Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Reid for moving this important motion today. We'll hear about the shocking rates of suicide and mental illness in our society many times today. For me, and for so many other Australians, World Suicide Prevention Day is deeply personal, and I acknowledge the collective grief of our nation. My husband's brother, Pete, a young doctor with a wife and two little children, died by suicide one Saturday morning 17 years ago. He had the whole medical profession at his disposal, yet he could not be saved. Mental illness is complex. For every death by suicide it is estimated that as many as 30 people attempt to end their lives. That is approximately 65,000 suicide attempts each year across our nation.

I acknowledge the record spend by this government, but the reality remains that mental health receives around 5.25 per cent of the overall health budget, while representing 12 per cent of the total burden of disease. We need to do much more. And, mostly, we need to do much more in regional Australia. Rural Australians experience a higher suicide rate than those living in cities, despite their comparable prevalence of psychological distress. At any given time, rates of suicide increase with increasing rurality. The most recent AIHW mortality report shows that 15- to 24-year-old males in regional areas are 1.8 times more likely to end their life by suicide than their urban counterparts, and the incidence is up to six times higher in very remote areas. Structural factors including unemployment, isolation and barriers to mental health care all contribute to this outcome.

In my electorate of Indi, where the suicide rate is 40 per cent higher than the state average, towns like Benalla have more than double the state average number of registered mental health patients. Our services are stretched to breaking point. When I visited Corryong recently, Dominic Sandilands, the CEO of Corryong Health—previously known as Upper Murray Health and Community Services—told me that they have one mental health nurse and she is past retirement age. She continues to work because they cannot find a replacement.

In the few short months since I was elected, I've been inundated with stories like this about how the mental health system is failing my constituents. I heard recently from a man called Jeremy—I'll call him Jeremy, but that's not his real name. Jeremy's son was one such young person. On a Tuesday evening in July, Jeremy's son attempted to take his life. Jeremy and his wife found him and took him immediately to the local hospital. That hospital did not have the facilities to care for him, so he was sent to the larger hospital 90 minutes away. But it could not admit him for care, because he was outside the catchment zone. He was sent home. In desperation, Jeremy called the next-biggest regional health service north of his town and was told that they were not in his zone either; it stopped 20 kays short of their house. They were instructed to drive two hours to the health service west of them where, mistakenly, they were again told they were in the wrong zone. They drove another hour to the next town where the mistake was realised and, unbelievably, they turned their car around and returned to the last place, where, finally, he was admitted.

My office alerted the state government minister to this terrible merry-go-round and I am happy to say that those boundaries have now been relaxed and the respective health services have been alerted. I congratulate the Victorian minister for such speedy intervention, but there are countless other barriers that go unreported. The mental health care system is failing people in country Australia. I truly commend the government's focus on mental health and I also want to work with the government—work together, collaboratively, across this nation—but, when people in regional Australia are still without critical services, I want to say we need to do more.

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