Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk about a very important issue that I think all governments need to make sure they are paying attention to: tackling mental health in our community. Before I came into this place I worked as a psychologist, and during that time I saw some very sad stories about the impact that mental health issues have on individuals and their families. That is why I was extremely pleased to join the Minister for Mental Health and Ageing to open the new headspace site at Noarlunga, right in the heart of my electorate. This sits nestled in the middle of a GP superclinic which is providing excellent services to the local area, but the headspace is a new, special space that will be dedicated to helping those young people with a mental health issue.

We know that for a lot of people mental health issues start very young, and I think it is very important that we recognise this and make sure that we have services in the community to tackle this. That is why I have been a very big fan of the headspace centres around the country; I think they provide a very youth-friendly environment for young people not to feel isolated and not to feel like they are walking into something that does not really meet their needs, does not suit them or is not somewhere they feel comfortable. That is why I was so pleased to see the Noarlunga headspace up and running and to see the wonderful, comfortable area that staff and all the consortium partners have done a great job in making very welcoming.

I would like to take this opportunity to particularly thank the youth reference group. Headspace sites, one of the important parts of the model, are ensuring that young people are directly involved. This is not older people telling young people what they need; it is young people really driving the service and determining what they need. I was very pleased to meet some of the very enthusiastic members of the youth reference group in Adelaide and at Noarlunga, and I have to say they really were incredibly commendable. Many of these young people had been through mental health issues and they had got themselves in a position where they wanted to give back. This shows real, impressive courage on the part of these young people to ensure that they are a service that may not have been there for them but is now there for other people.

I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the consortium partners, because another model of headspace is not that it is just one organisation delivering services. This is about a number of services getting together because, of course, headspaces do not just look at mental illness in isolation. One of the things I certainly found while I was practising as a psychologist is that there are silos put up on services. That might be clinical services for mental health that will not take people with drug and alcohol issues or people with health issues. People are constantly referred around the place and not dealt with in a very holistic way. I think one of the great things about headspace is that they do deal with a range of different issues, including physical health, mental health and vocational training and education—helping young people find the right study path, the right education or the right job for them—as well as looking at a whole range of other issues that they might be facing. That is why these models are very exciting, because you have a number of different partners. I would like particularly to congratulate the Southern Adelaide-Fleurieu-Kangaroo Island Medicare Local which is the lead agency. It is joined by the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, known as CAMHS, the Women's and Children's Health Network, Southern Second Story Youth Health, CRS Australia, Mind Australia, the Southern Adelaide Local Health Network and Uniting Communities Streetlink Youth Health Service. A number of different organisations are coming together, and this service will be really welcomed in our local area. On the day I opened it there had already been many young people using the service. A lot of people walked in to see what was there, because it is so inviting. I am very, very pleased to have committed this at the 2010 election, and now that it has been delivered in my community.