Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to acknowledge the contribution of the member for Leichhardt. This is a place where really personal stories get shared—that's what we all bring to our roles—and it's important for others to hear them. When I think about mental health, I cannot foresee a time when I will ever say, 'Job done. We've done all we need to do.' I just cannot see that we will get to a point where there isn't more to do, because it feels like there will always be more to do. But Mental Health Month does provide an opportunity to reflect on progress, and I'm very proud to be part of the Albanese Labor government, which is delivering more mental health services in the heart of communities right across the country. I'm also really proud to have been one of the advocates who has helped ensure that this is a key focus for this government.

When I look back to the start of my time in parliament, access to free mental health services was available only in acute situations—essentially when you were hospitalised. the biggest change I've seen in that decade is access to free early intervention and ongoing management care for complex mental health issues through places like headspace and Medicare mental health centres. It truly is transformational. When I came to this place in 2016 there simply was no free mental health service where young people could front up before something happened, before they reached a crisis. After years of advocating we were able to secure, first of all, the Katoomba headspace and then in more recent years the Richmond headspace, and of course the Penrith headspace was one that we set up last time we were in government. These have provided and continue to provide access to young people.

That's why I support the expansion of these services. We're expanding to 203 headspace services to support the mental health and wellbeing of young people aged between 12 and 25. You might say, 'Well, that's great for young people, but what about adults?' My experience is that some older people who are able to go to headspace are opting for an alternative service, which is the Medicare mental health centre, a place that anyone of any age can walk into and ask for help. I think that's the key thing: it's the ability to walk in, at any time, to ask for help. And the centres are not just open from Monday to Friday, nine to five. The Medicare mental health centre in Penrith is open seven days a week and the one in Richmond is open six days a week, including Thursday and Saturday evenings. As the mother of someone who's experienced complex mental health issues throughout their life, I can assure you that it never happens between nine and five, and that's been taken into account in so many of the services that have already rolled out and that are in the process of being rolled out.

I recently visited the Penrith Medicare mental health centre with Assistant Minister McBride. The centres are staffed by multidisciplinary teams with mental health clinicians and, importantly, peer workers. These peer workers are a vital part of the process. I see them at my Richmond centre and at the Hawkesbury centre as well as at the Penrith one. They're located in every Medicare mental health centre. It means they meet you on your level. They've been there. They've walked in your shoes. Care in these centres is tailored to the needs of each person, with wraparound support for people who have more ongoing need. No appointment, no referral, no mental health treatment plan is needed. You literally walk in.

Ninety-one Medicare mental health centres are on their way, offering free walk-in care from this multidisciplinary team. The expansion has been part of our plan to strengthen Medicare, and we made a historic $1.1 billion commitment at the election to deliver these new and expanded mental health services. It's across the whole lifespan of Australians. It includes 20 perinatal mental health centres to deliver support for new and expectant parents. I had a fantastic update just this week on the plans for the Penrith service, and I'm really looking forward to more details of the location of that one coming out, because we know how important those first few years are. They can be tough on mums and dads, but they are formative for children. So these perinatal mental health centres will unlock a whole other way of accessing support at a time when things are already quite complex. Even if everything's going well, it's never the easiest time in a parent's life, especially a mum's life.

We're also creating 17 Mental Health Kids Hubs to provide children and families with behavioural, social, emotional and wellbeing support. We're really looking at these free services being expanded across the entire range of need. From early next year we're rolling out the new National Early Intervention Service, which will deliver free phone and online mental health support from trained professionals. We received the details this week of the organisation selected to deliver this free digital mental health service. It's going to be called Medicare Mental Health Check In, and St Vincent's Health Australia has been tasked to deliver this service from 1 January next year.

The Medicare Mental Health Check In is part of our commitment to making sure that, no matter where you are—whether you're in periurban areas like mine, whether you're at the top of the Blue Mountains or beyond, whether you're way up in the world heritage area and not easily able to access centres in places like Richmond, Penrith or Katoomba—you can access support. This is a free digital mental health tool. It'll give you access to self-help tools and low-intensity cognitive behavioural therapy. CBT is part of so many support treatments that people receive. It'll be delivered by trained professionals via phone or video. I'm very excited to see the impact that the Medicare Mental Health Check In will have. It's for anyone over 16, and you don't need a referral from your GP to access it.

We'll also be encouraging people to seek help early. Having personally experienced the quality of care of the St Vincent's mental health team in our family, I look forward to seeing the product they roll out and how they work with the various stakeholders to get this right. Everyone should know the Medicare mental health phone line: 1800 595 212. Everyone should know that there's a Medicare mental health website, medicarementalhealth.gov.au, to help you find the service you need.

You can't do any of this unless you build a workforce. Reflecting back, we have been able to build that workforce, with more than 4,000 psychology scholarships, internships and training places, plus our focus on peer support workers. Next year we'll establish a new peer workforce association with a census of peer workers.

I know I'm not alone in advocating for better mental health services, and I really want to pay tribute to Assistant Minister McBride, who has used her professional experience in the sector to drive so much of the reform that we're seeing, along with the Minister for Health and Ageing. Our special envoy for men's health, the member for Hunter, has met people in my electorate, including Panthers, the Nepean/Blue Mountains/Hawkesbury prostate group, Walk it Off, Men's Shed and Lions, to hear their stories and concerns around mental health. The Panthers wellbeing officer, Kevin Kingston, shared the work being done to focus on wellbeing on and off the field for players, coaches and support teams. This is work that happens in our community.

I know groups like Reachout are doing incredible work, and I met recently with a delegation of young people, including Sina from Bligh Park, to talk about their research on the need for trusted mental health information online so that young people know what to trust. As co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Eating Disorder Awareness, we will continue to do work so that people suffering from an eating disorder can control what they see online. There is so much more to do, and I'm very proud to keep doing it.

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