Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last month I held a mental health roundtable, to hear directly from stakeholders about some of the issues and concerns that they have in their sector and how they relate to the Territory. I would like to place on record my thanks and gratitude to Steve Voulanas, who is the coordinator from Casey House, which is a youth refuge in my electorate; Lorraine Davies, from the Mental Illness Fellowship; Chris Franck, from Banyan House, which is a residential therapeutic community in my electorate; Emma Reid, from Top End Health Service; and Mark Smalley, from the Salvation Army, which operates the Sunrise Centre Drug and Alcohol Service.

I would also like to place on record my thanks to Richard Campion from the Top End Health Service; Wendy Ah Chin, who is the executive director for Aboriginal Health; and Mike Melino, Margaret Farrell and Merrilee Cox, all from the Department of Health. It is important that their participation, the wonderful insights that they had and the contributions that they were able to provide through their firsthand experience of working in this sector are acknowledged.

I would also like to thank the Territory Health Minister, John Elferink, for his cooperation, and particularly for enabling his department staff to participate in this forum. It was really good to get a Northern Territory government's perspective on the issues at hand as well. Everyone at the table brought a unique perspective to the discussion, and I would like to, as I said, thank them for sharing their experiences.

In my electorate we face some challenges with mental health. There are relatively high rates of substance abuse and homelessness. We have a relatively small population, but an increasingly diverse one. We are also geographically isolated from other service providers. Some of the issues discussed included clinical planning and mapping in the field; education among the public and also health professionals—including GPs—to enable a suite of assistance to those requiring mental health care; the funding gap in care programs; the crossover between corrections and mental health care; the gap in the levels of care available in Darwin and Palmerston; and the effect of alcohol abuse and ice, particularly involving young people in that community.

As I said, the forum was extremely insightful, and I will take all the opinions on board and consider them in the event of any possible reform in this area. I have already spoken with the minister, Susan Ley, about the feedback that we received and she was very receptive to this. I want to reassure people that I will do my very best to make sure that the experiences on this forum will inform the national debate.