House debates

Monday, 19 June 2023

Statements by Members

Durack Electorate: Mental Health Services

4:27 pm

Photo of Melissa PriceMelissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I think it's true to say that every member of parliament has their own headspace story. I want to put on the record that I am so incredibly proud of all the headspace centres around Durack. Since 2006 headspace has been providing early-intervention mental health services to our young 12-to-25-year-old Australians. We're all very proud of the work they do. Just recently I was particularly proud, as I've just had two new centres open. The first one is in Hedland, and unfortunately I couldn't attend the opening, but I did have the chance to visit them two days before their official opening. On that day, I met Arshani, Jess, Phyliss, Jess and Marissa. It is a beautiful, welcoming space, and I just want to give a shout-out to the youth advisory group who helped them with the design of the new headspace. It is really wonderful, and they made me feel so welcome. On 8 June, I had the opportunity to attend the Karratha headspace opening. I want to give a shout-out to Charlene, her team and her fabulous youth advisory group, who put together this most wonderful, entertaining and inclusive official opening. It was incredibly grand, and I want to thank them very much. I'm particularly proud of what we've been able to do with headspace in the Pilbara. Six years ago, I made a very big point of saying that we cannot just build a bricks-and-mortar space; we need more of an outreach program. That's what we committed to do. It took six years, we did the outreach and, from that outreach, we were able to determine the type of service that we needed. (Time expired)