By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A proposed Royal Commission into Mental Health literally can’t come soon enough for Noble Park father ‘Rick’ and his 13-year-old son ‘Michael’.
The pair, who Star News has chosen not to identify, are a stark example of people falling through the cracks of the mental health system.
They endure what Rick calls “Groundhog Day”.
Rick’s son is diagnosed with severe anxiety and a borderline disorder. Over the past eight months, he has been in a tortured state.
“At 3am, he wakes me up and cries,” Rick says.
“He screams about his family, who hardly visit him.
“He thinks everyone has abandoned him, he thinks everyone hates him.”
The boy has self-harmed. He can’t face school and strangers, finds it hard to sleep and is only comforted by video games.
“If I go out for more than five minutes, he screams.
“I can’t go back to work in case he does something silly.”
Since moving back with his father, Michael has been in a revolving door between Dandenong Hospital’s mental health unit and home.
When out of hospital, he receives just one session a week with a community-based counsellor.
There are long waits in the hospital emergency department. They are often told there are no beds in the mental health wing, Rick says.
According to the most recent official stats, the wing’s bed occupancy rate is 102 per cent. Just 18 per cent of patients are transferred from emergency to a mental health bed within eight hours.
In the meantime, Michael is on a two-month waiting list for the State Government’s Child First program for vulnerable children and family.
Rick – on leave from work – is told by Centrelink that he must wait 45 working days to be given a carer’s pension to look after his son.
“That would be after Christmas,” Rick notes. It’s part of the process, he’s told.
Rick has to manage his own bipolar depression. But he says he has to stay strong for his son.
“If I fall over as a dad, he goes into foster care.”
The pair stay in a single bedroom at a mate’s house. Rick’s pleas for bigger accommodation with housing services have gone unheeded.
Out of desperation, he rings Centrelink every day, rings the youth mental health service headspace.
He has also regularly visited incumbent Premier Daniel Andrews’ electorate office. Mr Andrews has pledged a mental health Royal Commission during the State Election campaign.
Maggie Toko, chief executive of Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council, says Rick’s story is far from uncommon, with long waiting lists for housing and support.
The VMIAC is concerned about community mental health programs shutting down due to funding being ‘transitioned’ to the federal NDIS.
“More and more mental health consumers are falling through the cracks,” Ms Toko said.
“We want the NDIS to stand up and be counted for them.”
Ms Toko added: “The other thing is consumers aren’t really listened to and they really are the experts in their own lives.”
Monash Health spokesperson Shane Butler said it was working to meet increasing demand for adolescent mental health services.
“We are working to provide care for more patients than ever before, while ensuring that in the most urgent cases people have ready access to acute care.”
The most recent State Budget increased funding for mental health, including more mental health workers, intensive community-based services and acute inpatient beds.
If you need help, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyond blue on 1300 22 4636.
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Star News surveyed State Election candidates for the seat of Dandenong. Their full resposes are below:
GABRIELLE WILLIAMS, LABOR SITTING MP
In the last budget, the Andrews Labor government invested a record $705 million for mental health support.
This included extra regional rehab facilities, new emergency department crisis hubs, more support for acute inpatient beds and a boost in the number of treatment hours in community-based services, giving 12,800 more Victorians the care they require.
The funding also included support for the development of 6 new hospital outreach post-suicidal engagement sites. These will help an extra 3,000 Victorians every year and ensure they, and their families, get the support they need.
Labor also expanded the Mental Health and Complex Need Initiative, assisting more people experiencing a mental health crisis. Funding in the budget also went towards the establishment of a Compulsory Treatment Scheme for adults with complex needs who pose a risk to the safety of others, and will include a new treatment facility.
The budget also included money for intensive community mental health services and support for high need mental health clients, and included a boost to Preventative Residential Care Units – allowing Victorians in the early phases of recovery to have more treatment options and better clinical care.
Further to this, the budget funded an expansion to the mental health workforce and new protections to prevent occupational violence.
And much more.
Even with all of this – as needed and important as it is – it is still clear that we have a system that can’t cope, and isn’t the best it possibly can be. This is why Labor’s commitment to a Royal Commission into Mental Health is so important. We’ve seen our Royal Commission into Family Violence trigger real and meaningful change. And we want to drive change in our mental health system to ensure our system is giving people the support they need and deserve.
AFROZ AHMED, TRANSPORT MATTERS PARTY
Mental health is a major issue nation wide.
While millions of dollars are being spent on addressing the issue and the budget for mental health has grown multi-folds over the year, there is not enough effort on understanding the basic cause of preventing the grass root cause – whether it is at families level such as domestic violence or work levels such as work place harassment. I will advocate for a review of our exiting mental heath services to focus more on prevention.
In case of the critical issues for shortage of services in Dandenong hospital. I will work with the hospital board in understanding the limitations and lobby for additional recourse no matter which party forms the government.
RHONDA GARAD, GREENS
On World Mental Health Day Lidia Thorpe, Victorian Greens Spokesperson for Mental Health, launched a $270 million commitment to restore funding to the state’s mental health sector.
The Policy includes:
· $200m over 4 years to restore funding to Community Mental Health Services to provide care to people who are not NDIS eligible.
· $10 million to embed sexual safety practices and reforms in our mental health services.
· $12 million to construct a new youth dedicated clinical prevention and recovery care facility.
· $48 million over four years for dedicated youth clinical services.
“When people cannot get public care in the community, they end up in our already over-burdened hospital emergency departments. The growing gap in community services has seen a 19% increase in mental health presentations in emergency departments in the past 4 years.” Lidia Thorpe, Victorian Greens Spokesperson for Mental Health.
