New helping hand for those with disabilities
Date published: Monday, 5 July 2010
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
When Clare Hooper left high school, she attended a special community centre to learn life skills and go on group excursions. As a person with intellectual disabilities and schizophrenia, she was given little choice. The government-funded centre offered her two days of activities with 30 others. And as her mother, Helen, remembers, Ms Hooper was ''bored and unfulfilled''.
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Mental health in jail 'tragic'
Date published: Monday, 5 July 2010
Source: The Australian
A NSW magistrate has called for increased powers to place mentally ill offenders in medical institutions for up to two years. Currently, the longest in-patient order in NSW is for three months, which experts believe is usually insufficient to achieve compliance with a regime of medication and prevent future mental and criminal relapses. Jim Coombs, who has presided as a magistrate in NSW for about eight years, said it was "simply tragic" that so many people with mental health issues were being incarcerated each year.
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Support is more than a marginal issue
Date published: Saturday, 3 July 2010
Source: The Australian
For nearly 10 years, Elaine Goddard has struggled to get the right help for her severely mentally ill son. He receives just 10 minutes a fortnight in support from his local health service. The 55-year-old Ms Goddard is the primary carer for her 24-year-old son, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2003 but has had mental health troubles since the age of 14. Ms Goddard voted for Labor in 2007 but said she was now considering switching to the Coalition in the next federal election.
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Mental health should not be afterthought
Date published: Thursday, 1 July 2010
Source: The Australian
Tony Abbott's promise of a $1.5 billion investment in mental health services under a Coalition government is an all-too-rare alignment of good policy and good politics. In contrast to the federal government, which promised more than it delivered, the opposition's blueprint sets out a responsible path forward in a chronically neglected field. Twenty-seven years after the Richmond Report in NSW advocated a new approach to caring for Australians with mental illnesses in the community, rather than in institutions, many of the benefits of that vision have proven elusive. It was motivated by the very best of intentions but the closing of institutions was not backed by investment in the specialist hospital, community and accommodation services that are essential for supporting people with a mental illness.
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Abbott takes action as new PM settles in
Date published: Thursday, 1 July 2010
Source: The Australian
Tony Abbott has acted swiftly in response to Julia Gillard's elevation by starting to produce substantive policy and move into a positive phase. After weeks of leaving Labor to turn upon itself over leadership, concerns about asylum-seekers and the proposed $12 billion resource super-profits tax, the Opposition Leader has launched a direct attack on the government's weakest spot - services for mental health. Since Kevin Rudd unveiled the government's health reforms there have been persistent questions about a lack of resources being directed towards mental health and growing public concern. The resignation of one of the government's chief advisers on mental health and criticism from respected leaders in the field have exposed Labor to political attack and Abbott has acted.
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Help youth with mental health issues take control of their future
Date published: Thursday, 1 July 2010
Source: The Australian
Adam Ellison has seen the debate surrounding youth mental health rage throughout his four-year battle with depression. He knows that the key to young people getting better is specialised services. After attempting suicide three years ago, Mr Ellison was discharged from hospital and sent to group therapy sessions surrounded by people twice his age. It was not until months later when he started treatment at new youth mental health service Headspace that the 26 year-old could get a grip on his illness. "Youth mental health has only really been a focus for governments for the last three years and the support recently has been amazing," Mr Elliot said.
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Rethink urged on mental health
Date published: Thursday, 1 July 2010
Source: The Australian
Health experts have asked the government to revise its national registration and accreditation scheme on psychology. They fear the proposed exclusion of one of its key areas will affect the mental health of chronically ill patients. The scheme, which introduces new national arrangements for all health professions from today, will provide the first ever national regulation for the psychology sector. Seven of the nine psychological specialisations have been endorsed under the new scheme, but with health psychology and community psychology left out.
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Experts hail a policy 'game-changer'
Date published: Thursday, 1 July 2010
Source: The Australian
Of all the expert voices raised in support of the Coalition's mental health policy yesterday, the one that will ring clearest is that of Pat McGorry. Professor McGorry - an advocate of early intervention for youth mental health problems - has fought tirelessly to use his Australian of the Year title as leverage to win more resources for the cash-starved sector. With yesterday's "very welcome" $1.5 billion announcement from the Coalition, he hopes he may be halfway there. "I'm optimistic that the Gillard government will now turn their attention to (mental health)," Professor McGorry said.
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Tony Abbott's mental health strike
Date published: Thursday, 1 July 2010
Source: The Australian
Tony Abbott has ignited the unofficial election campaign by targeting Labor's policy weak point of mental health with a $1.5bn spending package. The package includes 800 new hospital beds. Capitalising on health sector anger about Rudd government inaction on mental health, the Opposition Leader yesterday promised to fund 80 new mental health treatment facilities, including 60 serving young people. And as the government warned the opposition would have to cut existing services to fund the changes, Mr Abbott said he could bankroll his plan by eliminating the "suffocating bureaucracy" put in place by Labor.
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Abbott to spend $1.5b on mental health plan
Date published: Thursday, 1 July 2010
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
Tony Abbott has seized on a gap in the government's health reforms, vowing to spend $1.5 billion on mental health services in measures to be financed by scrubbing central elements in Labor's health scheme, including ''layers of bureaucracy''. The Coalition has taken up appeals by the Australian of the Year, Patrick McGorry, and promised to open 20 early psychosis intervention centres and 800 more mental health beds. Also promised are 60 additional ''headspace'' centres - one-stop venues for young people at risk of mental illness.
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Coalition pledge on mental health
Date published: Thursday, 1 July 2010
Source: The Age
A promised $1.5 billion increase for mental health if the Coalition wins government has put the issue firmly on the election agenda and exerted pressure on the government to act, experts say. Announcing his mental health policy in Melbourne yesterday, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said the promised funding over four years would deliver 60 new headspace centres to provide mental healthcare to young people. It would also provide 20 early psychosis and early intervention centres for young people, and an 800 more mental healthcare beds.
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