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492 Queensland Mental Health Commission Bill 7 Mar 2013 Mrs MENKENS (Burdekin—LNP) (12.05 pm): I am very happy to rise to speak in support of the Queensland Mental Health Commission Bill and amendments to the Mental Health Act 2000. In so doing, I certainly commend the Minister for Health for his excellent work in this area. Mental health is an area that has been sorely ignored for many, many years. That will certainly not be happening under the Newman government. Appropriately, in the lead-up to International Women’s Day this week, one of the four Queensland women vying for top spot in this year’s prestigious Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation’s Rural Women’s Award, which was announced this week by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Mr McVeigh, is a long-time advocate for rural mental health. Her name is Alison Fairleigh from Ayr, which is in the electorate of Burdekin. The state winner and runner-up titles will be announced at an award ceremony at Parliament House on Tuesday, 19 March. If successful, Alison said that she would use the $10,000 winner’s bursary to develop a pilot education program for Medicare Locals to improve access to front-line health and mental health services for farmers and farming communities. Sadly, male farmers and male farm workers have one of the highest rates of suicide in Australia. I commend Alison for her work previously and currently in highlighting these mental health issues. Across Queensland we have a number of inspirational people addressing Queensland’s mental health issues. I would also like to commend the work in my electorate of the Burdekin Mental Health Foundation and CORES—COmmunity Response to Eliminating Suicide—who, like various other community carers throughout this state, are working tirelessly at raising awareness and reducing the stigma attached to mental health. Indeed, Premier Campbell Newman and health minister Lawrence Springborg—in the Newman government’s Blueprint for Better Healthcare in Queensland—have a vision to rebuild Queensland Health and re-establish the state’s healthcare system as one to be admired nationally. This has the support of equally visioned LNP colleagues. The LNP blueprint is all about taking Queensland Health from repair to recovery, with the focus on placing the patient at the centre of the health system. Amendments to the Mental Health Act will do just that—place the patient at the centre of the health system. Up to half of Queenslanders will experience a mental illness or substance misuse disorder during their lifetime. For many, the disadvantage and social exclusion associated with mental health and substance misuse issues are sometimes more disabling than the illness itself. Families and loved ones also suffer. It would be fair to say that there are no families immune from these illnesses. The Queensland Mental Health Commission Bill 2012 establishes the Queensland Mental Health Commission, the QMHC, to drive ongoing reform towards a more integrated, evidence based, recovery oriented mental health and substance misuse system. It will be responsible for leading a cultural change in the way mental health, substance misuse—which includes the misuse of alcohol and other drugs—and other human services provided to people vulnerable to or at significant risk of mental health or substance misuse issues are planned and delivered in Queensland. The prevalence of mental illness peaks in early adulthood, with about 26 per cent of young Australians aged 16 to 24 years having experienced some form of mental illness in the past 12 months. The statistics really are quite alarming and very, very sad. The main purpose of the amendments is to include two new mechanisms in the Mental Health Act to identify and respond to risks that may arise from an involuntary patient under the act absconding from an authorised mental health service. These mechanisms will enable the Director of Mental Health to take immediate action in response to a serious risk to a person or the public by suspending access to the community for a defined class of patients and create a power for the director to apply a monitoring GPS tracking device to a patient who may be at risk of absconding when they are accessing leave in the community. The amendments to the Mental Health Act 2000 are not just about patient care; they are also about the protection of innocent members of the public who may be endangered by mental health patients when they are released into our communities. A key component of treatment provided under the act is established by the limited community treatment, LCT, provisions. These provisions enable involuntary patients, both civil and forensic or classified, to access treatment and leave in the community if approval for the leave is granted by their treating authorised doctor, the Director of Mental Health, the Mental Health Court or the Mental Health Review Tribunal.
7 Mar 2013 Queensland Mental Health Commission Bill 493 Incidents of forensic patients absconding while on LCT highlighted insufficient capacity in the act to effectively and immediately deal with matters that suggest a system issue. Mental health is affecting our communities and, unlike the Labor government, this LNP government is not turning a blind eye. There are multiple far-reaching impacts on the quality of life of people living with mental health and substance related problems. These impacts may include interrupted education, employment and vocational opportunities, difficulty in accessing secure housing which then leads to economic insecurity, reduced community involvement and social connectedness. People with mental health or substance misuse issues are overrepresented amongst homeless and prison populations and among recipients of social services such as child protection and youth justice. It is in the balanced context of providing a high level of care to mental health patients while protecting the rights of those patients and those of the wider community that I commend health minister, Lawrence Springborg, and committee members for their work in bringing this bill before the House. I commend the bill to the House. Mrs OSTAPOVITCH (Stretton—LNP) (12.12 pm): I rise to speak in support of the Mental Health Commission Bill. Some of you may know that my first career was that of a psychiatric nurse. I started my training at the age of 18 at the largest mental health hospital in New South Wales, Callan Park. So I learned from experience, not just from a textbook. There were over 20 different wards all tackling a different form of mental illness. I spent time at all of them, so, believe me, I have seen it all—the good, the sad and the bad. I know better than most that, with therapy, medication and an understanding family and community, a person’s mind can be healed in just the same way as a bodily illness can. So I encourage attempts made to bring an understanding of mental illness to the broader community. However, the truth is that some people need to be locked away from society, and one our reforms tackles the issue of protecting the innocent from those with dangerous disorders absconding while on LCT, which is limited community treatment. As a former psychiatric nurse, I am always interested in seeing improvements to the system— improvements that have been suggested by stakeholders, those experienced in the industry, not some bureaucrat or an office or a textbook expert. The establishment of the Queensland Mental Health Commission and the Queensland Mental Health and Drug Advisory Council can only be seen as an improvement. One of its key functions is to develop and monitor the implementation of a wholeof-government strategic plan to improve the community’s mental health and limit harm that drug and alcohol abuse causes to individuals and their families. I was astounded to hear the opposition oppose such a worthy goal. How could they not understand that only through different services acting in a coordinated way a real difference can be made? How could any reasonable person oppose attempts to improve the outcomes of those with ill mental health and vulnerable teenagers who are misled into thinking that alcohol and substance abuse will not have long-lasting effects on the brain and the body? As many human beings as there are on this planet, there are just as many ways each one of their brains forms attitudes and ways of coping with whatever life serves out to them. Developing a healthy mind in our children should be a priority. Discouraging the drinking of alcohol and the taking of drugs amongst our teens should be our priority. I listened with great interest to the statistics given at the Drug Arm workshop here at the annexe on Tuesday that highlighted the permanent damage that binge drinking does to the developing brain and the billions of dollars alcohol poisoning and alcohol fuelled violence causes government and the economy but, most of all, the cost to a mother, father, sister, brother or friend of an innocent who is murdered or left maimed every week of the year by what I call alcohol induced madness. Do you know what that statistic is? 70,000—70,000 in 2010 alone and, sadly, 16 per cent of those are assaults on children. That is over 1,000 kids, kids who will likely grow up with mental health problems or become offenders themselves. How cruel it would be to not try do something about that horrible statistic and how disappointing it was to not see one member of the opposition there at that meeting. So any opposition to our strategic plan to support initiatives designed to intervene early— indeed, to attempt to prevent mental health and substance abuse issues from emerging in the first place—is shameful and completely hypocritical to claims that they care about those with ill mental health. Well I care. Since the age of 18 I have listened to other people. My theory is that everyone just needs someone to talk to who cares enough to listen. I find it curious that after all these years since nursing, my role as a member of parliament is again one of listening.
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