The Hon Shayne Neumann MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing
Images of The Hon Shayne Neumann MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing

THE HON SHAYNE NEUMANN MP

Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing

Australian Rotary Health Dinner

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Speech - Australian Rotary Health Dinner - University House, ANU, Canberra

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Australian Rotary Health Dinner
University House – ANU
Canberra

Check Against Delivery

2 May 2013

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the Ngunnawal People, the traditional owners of the land on which we are meeting and pay my respects to their elders, both past and present.

I would like to recognise other special guests here tonight, including:

    • Terry Grant, Chairman, Australian Rotary Health;
    • Joy Gillett, CEO, Australian Rotary Health;
    • Professor Tony Jorm, Member of the Australian Rotary Health Research Committee;
    • Frank Quinlan, CEO, Mental Health Council of Australia; and
    • Distinguished guests, ladies and gentleman.
Introduction

Thank you for inviting me here tonight to speak to the Australian Rotary Health dinner in the midst of your 10th national symposium.

I bring with me the apologies of my colleague, the Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Mark Butler, whose duties prevent him from being here tonight.

He asked me to pass on his good wishes, and his appreciation of your choice of mental health as the focus for your deliberations.

Mr Butler is grateful for Rotary’s contribution to health research funding in Australia over more than three decades.

Mental Health a Priority

The Federal Labor Government identified mental health reform as a central priority in the 2011 Budget.

And we are delivering, with a record $2.2 billion investment in mental over five years from 2011-12.

You see, Labor Governments are Governments of reform.

Medicare has transformed the health system for of all Australians. Every person has access to world class health in this nation.

That was a Labor reform.

Superannuation is transforming the retirement health of Australians. That was a Labor reform.

DisabilityCare Australia will transform the lives of people living with disability, their carers and families.

A current Labor reform.

Likewise, our mental health reforms are focused on improving the lives of thousands of Australians experiencing mental illness through better detection, better targeting and better coordination.

You should feel confident that mental health reform has no greater champions that our Prime Minister, Julia Gillard and the Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Mark Butler.

We have witnessed the Prime Minister take a tough stand on funding programs that create a fairer more compassionate nation.

Programs such as DisabilityCare Australia and previously on unprecedented funding for mental health reforms.

This $2.2 billion package was designed in light of months of intensive engagement with experts, service providers, consumers and carers.

We established a new National Mental Health Commission to drive greater accountability and transparency in the mental health system.

The Commission released the first ever National Report Card on Mental Health and Suicide Prevention in November 2012.

We are investing nearly $200 million to provide for 90 fully sustainable headspace sites around Australia by 2014-15 – up from 40 under the Coalition.

More than half of those sites are now operational, on the ground, and 70 locations altogether have been announced. The new headspace services are giving young people the help they need to get through tough times, get back on their feet and fulfil their potential.

In my own city of Ipswich I was proud to open the local Aftercare operated headspace service – a wonderful collaboration and partnership with so many providers and groups including the West Moreton Oxley Medicare Local, UQ Healthcare and the Ipswich City Council.

Ipswich headspace now has the dubious honour of being one of the busiest headspace centres in Australia, such is the demand locally.

The Federal Labor Government has signed off with state and territory governments to provide $200 million in funding for innovative projects supporting people with severe and chronic mental illness - with a particular focus on helping them avoid hospital admission and find stable housing.

We have overhauled our approach to mental health services over the internet (e-mental health), set up a new free virtual clinic open to all Australians (MindSpot), and increased telephone and crisis support line funding to organisations like Lifeline, Inspire and Kids Helpline.

We have dramatically expanded Personal Helpers and Mentors - colloquially known as PHaMS - Family Mental Health Services, and respite services for consumers and carers. New and expanded services are coming online on time and as planned.

Medicare Locals have received huge increases in funding to provide more specialised counselling services to "hard to reach" groups, including young families and Indigenous Australians.

There has been an expansion of the transformative Kidsmatter program in primary schools, and we have worked with experts to develop a healthy kids check for under fives to help parents with their children's emotional and social development.

We are in the final stages of rolling out a revolutionary program (Partners in Recovery) which provides coordinated (and not just clinical) support to the most severely and chronically unwell in our community: a new program worth $550 million, which will mitigate against the “siloing” of service delivery.

The Mental Health Reform package, both in its size and its priorities, is well and truly delivering on the Prime Minister's pre-election commitment to make mental health reform a priority for this term of government.

In the research space, a total of $26.2 million from within the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) Medical Research Endowment Account was provided for a special initiative in two key areas – capacity building and a Targeted Call for Research (TCR) in the prevention of, and early intervention in, mental illness in children and young people.

The aim of the TCR was to deliver greater evidence-based policies and practices to improve mental health care and the provision of mental health services, and in particular, the need to improve youth mental health in Australia. In 2012 the NHMRC awarded three mental health Centres of Research Excellence to the value of $2.5 million each and funded 12 projects for a total value of $12.7 million under the TCR.

In addition, the initiative provides up to two fellowships, each receiving $750,000 for five years under the John Cade Fellowship in Mental Health Research program.

As many of you will know, Dr Cade was an Australian psychiatrist who discovered the effective use of lithium as a treatment for bipolar disorder.

E-Mental Health Strategy

In July last year the Government released its E-Mental Health Strategy.

This aims to further embed telephone and online care as regular features of the Australian healthcare system.

The strategy, for which we have allocated $116 million over four years, consists of a number of initiatives, among them:

    • The first national online mental health portal, Mind-HealthConnect;
    • A virtual clinic, MindSpot, offers free cognitive behavioural therapy for mild to moderate anxiety and depression. It is conducted in real time with a trained counsellor either online or by phone;
    • The Telephone Counselling, Self Help and Web-Based Support Programs, or Teleweb, which has funded seven existing services with seven new services forthcoming, in its latest funding round;
    • eheadspace, a free confidential and anonymous telephone and web-based support service to young people aged between 12 and 25 with, or at risk of developing, mild to moderate mental illness; and
    • Finally, an open tender process is under way for a new service promoting mental health therapies and services, and improving training in these approaches.
Why the emphasis on e-mental health services? First of all, they can be accessed at little or no cost to the individual.

Secondly, many people who live with mental health difficulties are reluctant to seek face-to-face help in the traditional way.

E-services can be accessed from home. This avoids the cost of travel and more importantly, reduces the stigma often associated with a mental disorder.

And the Federal Labor Government’s National Broadband Network – another Labor reform – will improve internet speeds, in turn improving take-up of these mental health services into the future.

Support for Children with Mental Illness

I have mentioned eheadspace. The original headspace is already working to improve the mental health and wellbeing of our children and young adults.

With the focus on the 12-to-25 age group, headspace provides early intervention and prevention services in four areas:

    • mental health;
    • physical health;
    • alcohol and other drug use; and
    • social and vocational support.
The Federal Labor Government has provided $197.3 million over five years from 2011-12 to increase the number of headspace sites to 90.

Once fully established, the 90 headspace sites across Australia will help up to 72,000 young people each year.

To date, 70 sites have been announced and we expect the remaining 20 to be announced by June 2015.

We are expanding the voluntary Medicare Healthy Kids Check, helping very young children—the target age is three-and-a-half—to develop well and prepare for preschool and primary school.

The aim of the expanded check is to ensure that where needed, children and their families can get support for their emotional wellbeing and development.

Australian and international evidence indicates that early intervention is effective.

And the earlier you intervene for children at risk, the greater the dividends over a lifetime.

Conclusion

Ladies and gentlemen, as you can tell from what I have said, this Government takes the issue of mental health very seriously.

I have seen firsthand how important it is to have a strong Medicare Local coordinating localised programs and bringing providers and specialists together.

I have seen the impact headspace is having in the lives of our young people at a local level.

I have seen how the Partners in Recovery program has assisted those who care for family members with severe mental illness. It is a difficult road to tread and this program provides practical assistance to those who often are overwhelmed and neglected.

I have lobbied hard for these programs in my own electorate as I know how important they are on the ground.

We need strong partnerships and strong voices.

There are no guarantees that reforms like this will continue under a Coalition Government.

In my home state of Queensland we have seen some of the nation’s most savage and brutal cuts to health and community services and to preventative health programs. These services often impact the most vulnerable in our society.

I am concerned about the future of our Medicare Locals; of our headspace centres and our health research partnerships.

Mental illness has not always had vocal advocates. Mental illnesses are often hidden conditions because people who live with it often try to disguise it through fear of being stigmatised.

Problems such as depression are often not recognised as serious, sometimes even by friends and families.

And yet mental illness can be just as debilitating to the individual as a condition for which we all have sympathy, such as cancer.

It can destroy careers, break up families, ruin lives.

That’s why we need strong advocates.

We need reformers, such as our Labor Government, and we need partnerships with organisations such as Australian Rotary Health.

Your work and support is invaluable and I applaud you for your commitment and to such a worthy cause.

Thank you.

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