Ruth Webber (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This week is National Mental Health Week. In fact today—and it is still today, just—is World Mental Health Day. It was with a great deal of pleasure that I attended the launch of World Mental Health Day by the Mental Health Council of Australia.

The theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day is ‘Building Awareness—Reducing Risks: Suicide and Mental Illness’. This morning’s launch is one of a series of events being hosted by the Mental Health Council in this building during this week. I would urge more of my colleagues to attend them. This morning’s event was compared by Dr Norman Swan from the ABC’s Health Report. We heard from Rob Knowles, the new chair of the Mental Health Council of Australia, Professor Ian Hickie, someone who is well known to most people in this building, and Ms Dawn Smith, who is the CEO of Lifeline Australia. They all had some very important things to impart to us as part of the launch.

Perhaps the most significant and moving event this morning was the launch of a book by Ms Geraldine Quinn titled Matthew and others: journeys with schizophrenia. It tells some very personal stories about families who have had to deal with loved ones who have schizophrenia and it talks about the role that art and other forms of creativity play in assisting people who suffer from that very debilitating disease.

I contrast the launch today—an invitation was sent out to everyone in this building to attend it and there was the openness and professionalism of the Mental Health Council—with my disappointment following the launch of a significant program yesterday by the parliamentary secretary. All of us who were on the Senate Select Committee on Mental Health would have been interested in attending that launch, which included the expansion of the Medicare benefit to allied health, particularly psychological services. I know of a number of people who were invited to attend that launch, including a number of service providers and members of support groups. But it would seem that it was not an open event which all of us in this building who have an interest in the pursuit of good mental health policy were invited to attend.

Many of us in this building have talked about the priority that mental health has in our community. Those of us who are the supposed opinion leaders in this area have lagged behind in giving mental health the priority that the community gives it. Many people have therefore put a great deal of effort in taking any initiatives or paths in a bipartisan, if not a multipartisan, approach to forward this issue. I want to place on the record my disappointment at what I think was a closed event to those of us who are not members of the government.

There is a calendar of events for Mental Health Week, not just taking place in this building but throughout our community. In fact, the town of Albany, some four hours south of Perth, has a comprehensive calendar of events. Albany is a seaside town. Some see it as a retirement village, but it is actually a growing community with some industry development. Albany has a very active Great Southern Mental Health Week committee who have put together a series of events.

The committee deals with all the community groups. The Men’s Resource Centre is involved in it. Yesterday at a function, they presented the ‘Calm experience’, which is a gentle workshop for the self-management of tension, anxiety and pain in the mind and body. Perhaps that would be useful for some of us in here as well. Another group was organising ‘Growing older disgracefully’, which is about encouraging older members of the community to talk about some of the challenges that they face. The Albany bimonthly interagency luncheon was held around the issues of Mental Health Week and mentally healthy activities. There is also a program of free physical activity for the whole family.

The University of Western Australia’s school of population health presented a public awareness lecture. There was a comprehensive calendar of events organised by this group, and I am sure by many other groups throughout Western Australia. They fit under the banner, which has now been adopted by the Mental Health Council of Australia, called ‘ABC—act, belong, commit’. To act, belong and commit equals being mentally healthy.

Last week, as part of the lead-up to Mental Health Week in Western Australia, I was pleased to attend a function at the University of Western Australia. The University of Western Australia was the first university to adopt the use of the mental health first aid course. The university encourages students and any of its staff who interact with students, such as academic, library or parking staff, to participate in the course. To date, some 250 people have graduated. The vice-chancellor of the university decided that it was appropriate in the lead-up to Mental Health Week to hold a function to honour those graduates. At that function I met with a number of people from the Mental Health Council of Western Australia, who launched their poster for this week. It would come as no surprise to people in the west that the person featured on their poster this year is my very good friend Geoff Gallop.

I would like to contrast those positive events with those of the City of Fremantle. People in this place are probably growing tired of me talking about the challenges that we had with my own local council, the town of Vincent, in the development of a step-down facility for those with a mental illness. It would seem that local government have learned nothing from that exercise. They still think it is appropriate to intervene in what are appropriate staffing levels and to respond to the stigma and the discrimination that some sections of our community still have.

The health department of Western Australia proposed to build a hostel on their own land in Alma Street in Fremantle. Alma Street runs alongside the Fremantle Hospital. The land that the health department was proposing to build this hostel on is not only owned by them but it is right near the car park that it also owns and that services the hospital. However, in their wisdom, the City of Fremantle have decided that they will not officially come out and say that they do not want another mental health facility in their region; instead, they have decided that what was proposed to be a 16-bed facility should only be an eight-bed facility, otherwise there will be too many cars travelling up and down the street. As I said, it would seem that the Local Government Association of Western Australia have learnt nothing from the town of Vincent experience.

One of the councillors went on record in the Fremantle Herald recently to say that the city has a rock-solid reason to decide as it did. Under the current zoning of ‘residence—other’, a hostel could have gone ahead, but only with the blessing of the council. They are saying that the council will not give that blessing, supposedly on planning grounds. However, the article in the Fremantle Herald points out that the plans for the hostel for the mentally ill young people have been sent back to the drawing board by the Fremantle council’s planning committee because of significant community opposition.

Yet again, despite activities like those organsied by the Great Southern Mental Health Week Committee, activities taking place at UWA and activities taking place in this building, it would seem that we still have a long way to go. The City of Fremantle, which is meant to be one of the most inclusive and vibrant councils, needs to rethink its approach to these issues.