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Home > Ministers > The Hon Mark Butler MP, Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Mental Health Reform, Minister for Housing and Homelessness > Media Hub > Transcript Door Stop: Healthy Kids Check Adelaide - 10 June 2012

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PDF printable version of Transcript Door Stop: Healthy Kids Check Adelaide - 10 June 2012 (PDF 260 KB)

10 June 2012

Butler
Thanks for coming out this morning. There’s been quite a bit of discussion this morning about one of the very important elements of our record mental health reform package that we released last year. And that is the decision that the Government made then to change the healthy kids check from four years old to three years old and also to broaden it to incorporate social and emotional wellbeing elements – so not just the physical health checks that doctors have been doing for some years under our health program to check hearing, to check eyesight, to check physical development – but also recognising that the social and emotional development of children in their first five years is a very important foundation for good mental health and good development in later years of childhood, adolescence and, ultimately, adulthood as well

Journalist
Is there a danger of misdiagnosis or oversubscribing?

Butler
Well there is always a danger in these areas. And that’s why we’ve had a very high level expert group incorporating paediatricians, early childhood education experts, general health experts look at this for some months to make sure that we get the design of that tool precisely right so that parents can be confident that when they go to a GP or a practice nurse in a GP surgery to check that just before their child starts pre-school or steps into primary school, that they’re developing in a way that we all hope and expect that they will be.

Journalist
Isn’t three a little young to be screening for mental health issues?

Butler
Well, it’s not screening for mental health issues, its screening to make sure that their social and emotional development is tracking as we hope and expect it will be. Now that’s a very important foundation for good mental health later in life. But this was the very clear advice of the expert group that I pulled together for some months before the mental health reform package was released last year, which incorporated a range of elements for childhood mental health, it incorporated a range of elements in adolescent mental health, rolling out headspace services and early psychosis services. But this was a very clear, strongly held piece of advice that we got from experts and we accepted that advice.

Journalist
What impact do you think it will have in terms of diagnosing people with issues?

Butler
Well that’s a matter to direct to clinicians. But what we do hope is that parents and the community generally will have a level of confidence now that they have somewhere to go to check that their child is tracking in physical and emotional terms at three in a way that we all hope and expect they will be able to. So that if there are some concerns they will be picked up early, they’re dealt with so that the child can continue to develop and take those really important steps into preschool and primary school in the best position possible.

Journalist
Will this be able to be supported by the Government and will it be properly resourced?

Butler
This is part of our $2.2 billion reform package – the largest ever mental health reform package we released last year. It builds on the healthy kids check program that our Government has had in place for some years now where children are able to be checked, as I said, for hearting, eyesight and other physical health issues. So it simply expands that program at the cost of about $11 million over the period of the package but it’s very clearly budgeted for, paid for and it’s in the forward estimates and we’re just working very carefully with experts to make sure that the design of the check is precisely right and that GPs and practice nurses are trained to be able to deliver the check.

Journalist
Is the money also for psychiatrists and so forth or is it just for GPs?

Butler
It’s for the check itself which will be overwhelmingly be done in GPs surgeries under the Medicare system, whether by a GP or in some cases, I suspect, by practice nurses who are trained to do the check as well, in the same way that the Healthy Kids Check is currently conducted for, as I’ve said, things like hearing, eyesight and other physical development issues.

Journalist
So, once it’s in the hands of clinicians and the like to then decide what to do, is the Government going to check up on these cases as well. I mean, what if psychiatrists then decide to start prescribing anti-psychotic drugs and the like?

Butler
Well, the experts who have been designing this tool have made it very clear that their overriding objective has been to do no harm. The overriding objective has been to provide a positive opportunity to families to take their children – at that critical time of three years of age - to take those children to their GP – their family doctor or family practice nurse – and just check that their physical development and their emotional development is tracking how we all would hope and expect it will be at that critical age before they start to take those steps into pre-school and primary education.
So, this is a wonderful opportunity families are embracing. Obviously we need to make sure through the advice of the clinical experts that its conducted in the best way possible and that there’s not an overreaction, but I’m very confident that the people we have around the table designing this piece of work have that absolutely at the front of their mind.

Journalist
[Question indistinct]

Butler
[indistinct] … it will provide the Department with advice about how to provide the best possible mental health support for those people in those early periods of immigration, including immigration detention.

Journalist
Are you worried about the rate of people arriving and do you want it to stop?

Butler
Well we’ve got a very clear policy about how that can stop and that is a policy of offshore processing which has been the advice at a very high level from the Department of Immigration but which Tony Abbot for base political reasons just won’t accept.

Journalist
On the kids health check, have you taken in the concerns of groups like the AMA?

Butler
Yes, we have and we’ve got very high level clinical advice working on the design of this check and I think broadly we’ve seen broad support for the check. Of course, there are people who want to sound a note of caution to make sure the check doesn’t go too far and I think that’s a responsible thing for groups like the AMA to do and we listen to those notes of caution very carefully.

Journalist
Is there a risk that kids will be labelled with mental health conditions?

Butler
We’re very conscious not to do that. This is a positive opportunity for families to check the emotional and social development of children at a critical age – the critical age of three years old before they start to take those steps out of the family environment into preschool and then primary school. This is a wonderful opportunity for families to check that the physical and emotional development of their children is tracking as we all hope and expect that it will.

Journalist
Just back on asylum seekers, you made reference to Tony Abbott’s comments, I mean, were you concerned about the demonization of asylum seekers that we’ve seen over the past week?

Butler
Look, these are really questions that you should direct to the immigration Minister.
Thanks very much.

(ends)