Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, press conference – 22 January 2025

Read the transcript of Assistant Minister McBride's press conference on the opening of the Medicare Mental Health Centre in Rockhampton.

The Hon Emma McBride MP
Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention
Assistant Minister Rural and Regional Health

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EMILY MAWSON, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR CAPRICORNIA: All right. Thank you everyone, for coming down to celebrate the opening of the Medicare mental health care clinic here in Rockhampton. And thank you, Aunty Nicky, for such a beautiful Welcome to Country. I always find yours quite special, so thank you. This is a fantastic event today. We're here opening the Medicare Mental Health Care clinic, which is an excellent example of Labor's investment in health in regional and rural Queensland. Since opening in December, the clinic has already seen about 60 presentations, which is 60 people here in Rockhampton who have gotten access to urgent mental medical health services when they need it, and for free. 

This is a huge investment by the Labor Government in regional and rural health services, and I'm so excited to be here today with the Minister Emma McBride, to open the facility. We know that mental health is a real issue here in central Queensland, so seeing that continuous investment in these services is really encouraging. And I'll hand over to the Minister to give you more information. 

ASSISTANT MINISTER EMMA MCBRIDE: Thank you very much, Emily. And thank you, Aunty Nicky. Thank you for your really gracious and generous welcome to us today, and Emily, our Labor candidate for Capricornia and Julie from the Primary Health Network. I'm so proud to be here today, on behalf of the Albanese Labor Government, to officially open the Medicare Mental Health Centre here in Rockhampton. And later today, we’ll be down the Bruce in Gladstone, opening a service there for the community in Gladstone. 

Back in June last year, I made a commitment to Central Queenslanders and to your community that we will provide improved access to quality mental health support and care right in the heart of your community. Since opening in December, as Emily has said, more than 60 local people have already been able to walk in without an appointment, without a referral, free of charge, to get the right mental health support and care that they need. This is part of a national investment that the Albanese Labor Government is making: 61 Medicare mental health centres across the country, 19 right here in Queensland. And this is the sixth, and later today, seventh Medicare mental health centre open in Queensland. 

We know that it has been hard for people experiencing distress in the community to be able to access support close to home and affordably. In our Medicare Mental Health Centre, someone will walk in and be greeted by a friendly peer worker like Kristy, who's walked in their shoes and has had some direct lived experience. Then they're likely to be able to work with psychologists, a mental health social worker, a counsellor, someone who can provide that expert clinical care in a safe and welcoming environment. We know that there is increasing distress in communities in places like Central Queensland, affected by natural disasters, the long tail of COVID-19, and the pressures of day-to-day life. And as a former mental health worker myself, I am so proud that we're investing in community mental health so that local people, wherever they live, can get free, walk-in mental health support and care from qualified, experienced professionals. 

This is part of our commitment to strengthen Medicare. We also have here in Rockhampton a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, which has seen now more than 15,000 patients since it’s opened its doors in December 2023. As the minister responsible for regional and rural health, I am so proud to be part of a government that is investing strongly in providing quality services affordably to local people. I might now hand over to Julie from the PHN to provide further comments. 

JULIE STURGESS, PRIMARY HEALTH NETWORK: Thank you. Thank you so much Assistant Minister McBride. It's so lovely to have you back in Rockhampton. You know, we've spent a lot of time together over the last little while, and that's because there's been so many services that, you know, we've been engaging in commissioning in Central Queensland alone. And certainly it's, thank you, Aunty Nicky, again for your welcome. And it's lovely to have Emily and Tony Williams, the Mayor of Rockhampton here as well. Thank you for supporting such an important initiative. 

We know that in Rockhampton, the data tells us that there's an incredible demand for mental health services. And, as a result of that, this is a response to meeting some of that need. And the nice thing about Medicare mental health centres is there is no barriers to people accessing that service. So a referral is not needed from a GP. People can walk in, access the service. There is no cost to them to access that service. So really, and the other thing is that it's a very welcoming environment where people can walk in and engage with a peer worker when they first come in. So someone who's walked in their shoes around suffering from, you know, distress and someone who understands some of the problems they're facing. 

So it is incredibly important for us, for these models to be in place where people have a welcoming and comfortable environment to be able to deal with their needs. As Emma has said, it's not the first centre that we're opening. So later today, Gladstone, and of course, we also, in this region, have Medicare mental health centres in Sunshine Coast and Bundaberg. So an enormous commitment in this region. In addition to that, we have over 50 sites that work with Wellways and Clarity who are delivering this service to work collaboratively across the CQ region. And the reason that we're doing that is that we know people all have different needs in regard to their mental health, and what we want them to be able to do is navigate care seamlessly without having the stress of having to work out where to go. So when you wrap all those things up together, it's an incredibly important change that has been delivered in the last 18 months for the whole region, my whole region, but CQ in general. So I'm extremely happy to have everyone here today. 

And I might just throw over to Laura Collister, who is the CEO of Wellways, and Wellways and Clarity are the successful provider across all sites for our Medicare mental health centres. 

LAURA COLLISTER, CEO, WELLWAYS: Thank you very much, Julie, Assistant Minister, Emily, and particularly Aunty Nicky for that welcome. I am Laura Collister, the CEO of Wellways. I'm thrilled to be here at this Medicare Mental Health Centre. I'm speaking on behalf of Wellways and Clarity who have entered into this quite unique partnership. Wellways has got deep expertise in bringing lived experience and the power of lived experience to people experiencing distress. And that's a hallmark of this Medicare Mental Health Centre. Clarity have got clinical expertise. Together, these 2 elements is going to provide something pretty unique and special for the Rockhampton community. We've come together, our strengths to bring this. But we had a shared vision, and the shared vision is that this centre becomes part of the Rockhampton community, that people come and visit this centre without stigma to get the help that they want and need. We want this centre to be an integral part of the mental health system in Rockhampton. It's not going to do it alone; it will make relationships with the better connect centre, the hospital and health services and community agencies. Together we can make a difference to the Rockhampton community. It's already been said this centre people walk in off the streets to get the help that they want at the time – free, timely, accessible expertise for people in the Rockhampton community. I hope you can feel my excitement and the excitement of the Clarity team and the Wellways team to be working together to make a difference in this community. We are very excited and I want to acknowledge the strong partnership Clarity and Wellways have together, but with the PHN to deliver this service to the community. So thank you very much.

[Applause]

MCBRIDE: Any questions?

JOURNALIST: Yes. I mean, just talking about since December – so you've had 60 patients come through. Has there been any feedback from these patients about that process?

MCBRIDE: Yes, there have. And I'm so pleased to share with you that people have come through, and have said that it's a safe and welcoming place, that they received the support that they needed and that they've personally really benefited from it. And that's the sort of experience that we want everybody to be able to have. And that's why we've set up this model of care that is safe, that is welcoming, where everybody can walk in and in a timely way be able to receive quality and free mental health support and care.

JOURNALIST: And what is it that you think people sharing their lived in experience, why do you think that's so important for the patients?

MCBRIDE: Lived experience is so powerful. That's why we're setting up nationally for the first time a peak body for lived experience workers. And it's also why we're doing a census to understand where peer workers are and the kind of roles that they're working in, because someone who has walked in your shoes is often the best person to be able to help you to navigate your own experience. And also, it's the promise if someone's seen that someone with direct lived experience is now working in a role like that, they can see that there is a pathway to recovery and for them to be being part of getting back to working and living and happy and thriving life.

JOURNALIST: And what other commitments can be expected for the year ahead in terms of health and mental health?

MCBRIDE: Yeah. We know, and myself as a mental health worker, I worked in regional hospitals and in mental health inpatient units. We want to make sure that every person, wherever they live, has access to quality care affordably. As I mentioned earlier, in December 2023, we opened the Rockhampton Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, and already 15,000 local people have benefited from free walk in physical health support. Now, we're complementing that with Medicare Mental Health Centres right here in Rockhampton and Gladstone. We've also made significant investments in bulk billing. When we came to government after 10 years of neglect, it was really hard for people to be able to see a doctor and to be bulk billed. We've tripled the bulk billing incentive and we've seen a stabilisation in bulk billing. We're looking to do more of this to make sure that wherever somebody lives, particularly in the regions, that they get that support and care. 61 Medicare Mental Health Centres, 19 in Queensland, seven up and running already. So you can expect more of that.

And the thing that I also want to say is that's what's at risk. We know that under the former government, these sort of services weren't available, that people in distress could end up in crisis. And in the inpatient unit that I used to work in, that's what's at risk. That's why we're seeking people's support in Rockhampton, in Capricornia, to be able to continue the work of the Albanese Labor Government with fantastic candidates like Emily, who has worked herself as a lawyer, working with people who are victims of diseases that come through occupational exposure. So to have a coal miner's daughter who's working locally here, representing people and standing up for people who've experienced asbestosis, that's the kind of voice that you want as part of a government providing stronger services for regions like Rockhampton.

JOURNALIST: And what else is being done to bring more people into the health profession, particularly in mental health and general practice?

MCBRIDE: We know that there has been a shortage of health workers, including mental health workers, particularly in the regions. As someone who grew up in the regions myself and as a pharmacist and worked at a local hospital, I have seen this particularly under the former government. So to answer your question about doctors, we're increasing the number of places for medical students at places like Central Queensland University. We're also making it a smoother transition from a doctor in training in a hospital to be able to move into general practice. We've seen an increase in the number of medical students choosing general practise as a speciality. We've also seen more than 17,000 new doctors registered in Australia to practice in the last two years. An investment in more medical students, more doctors in training for general practice and also bringing in more international doctors. A really strong investment in the pipeline of health and medical health workforce, particularly in the regions.

JOURNALIST: Did Gladstone have a soft opening?

MCBRIDE: Gladstone has also opened in December, and we've seen quite a number of people through there as well. And I'm looking forward to going down the Bruce this afternoon and doing the official opening in Gladstone. We know that it's really important to bring services close to home, and to have something within your own community makes such a big difference in someone being able to access support and care. Importantly, we've also, I secured another $30 million to be able to set up a virtual network of specialist psychiatrists and psychologists. If you do need that additional clinical support, that you'll be able to access that too.

JOURNALIST: Thank you.

MCBRIDE: Thank you, everybody.

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