SENATOR CAROL BROWN: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming, and it's a very exciting day here in the heart of Glenorchy. And I first would like to welcome with open arms, Assistant Minister Emma McBride. Emma is the Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, and it's an exciting day for the people of Glenorchy. Today is the formal opening of the Medicare Mental Health Centre. This is a vital service for the people of Glenorchy and the surrounding areas. It’s a service that is greatly required. We know that people that are accessing mental health services, they need it when an event isn't occurring. And what we are seeing is people need to be able to go to a service without a referral, that is free. and that they will be welcomed. And this is exactly what a Medicare Mental Health Centre brings. And this is the fourth one, I believe, in Tasmania. And so, what the Albanese Labor Government is doing is putting services in the community where people live, services close to home so they can be looked after.
And this service will actually connect you further on if required. So- and it’s a service that is also going to be accompanied by an urgent care clinic in the next few months. So it's really all happening in Glenorchy. We thank the Albanese Labor Government. We thank Assistant Minister McBride for all the work that she's doing with these fabulous centres. They're greatly needed, and the people of Glenorchy will now have a service that they can rely on. I’ve just asked Emma to formally open the service.
ASSISTANT MINISTER EMMA MCBRIDE: Thank you so much, Carol, for this warm welcome to Glenorchy. I'm so pleased to be here on what is such an important day for the local community here. This is the 57th Medicare Mental Health Centre open across Australia, the fourth in Tasmania. We've already seen more than half a million free walk-in appointments across the country. People can walk in without a referral, without a diagnosis, and access the kind of care they need, close to home, for free and backed by Medicare. We know that in Australia today, one in five people struggle with their mental health each year. That's two in five of us in our lifetime, and for young people that's doubled. Which is why I'm so proud to stand with the Prime Minister at the last election to announce a $1.1 billion investment in mental health and wellbeing across the country, and a $267.3 million investment to introduce or expand 32 Medicare Mental Health Centres, including the one right here in Glenorchy.
We know that in Tasmania within the existing services, there's been more than 22,000 free walk-in appointments. And when someone walks in, they'll be greeted by someone who's walked in their shoes, someone with their own lived experience who can help them find the support and care that is tailored to their needs. As a former mental health clinician who worked in acute inpatient services in a regional centre, I saw people in distress reach crisis simply because there wasn't the support they needed in the community. Now that support exists, and this will make such a big difference to local people in this community. And staffed by an expert team of mental health clinicians, mental health social workers, mental health nurses, counsellors, peer workers providing that wraparound support and care tailored to the individual's needs, all free and close to home and supported by Medicare.
JOURNALIST: Do you think a service like this would be so essential if it wasn't so tricky in the first place to get a referral, and expensive at the same time?
MCBRIDE: There is a large and growing need across the country for mental health support and care. We see an increasing number of people in distress. And for too long, the system has been too hard to navigate. It's been hard for people to find the support they need. I saw that as a mental health clinician myself. So this is a new front door to mental health support and care. Someone can walk in, they can get some information or advice, they can get support for themselves or a family member. They can have the support and care here, or they can be linked in with an appropriate service that meets their needs without having to retell their story. Everyone is calling for a more integrated, coordinated system of care, and that's what we're doing through Medicare Mental Health.
JOURNALIST: Would you like to see more than 10 subsidised sessions per year away from services like this? And then, I guess, to get rid of that sixth one where you need to get another referral just to keep going to the same psychologist.
MCBRIDE: What we saw with the evaluation of the Better Access scheme, which is the funded appointments with a mental health treatment plan, was that people in the existing system of care were able to get more support, but it locked out other people who couldn't get into the system. What we've seen through Medicare Mental Health Centres is that people who otherwise couldn't find support, older people, men, people living in the regions, now have access to support. And we find that people typically come, they have an initial assessment, and then mostly people have about five or six appointments that's designed wraparound to meet their needs.
Also, if someone does need more specialist mental health care, that can be arranged for free with a psychologist or a psychiatrist – again, all through centres like this right around the country.
JOURNALIST: This has been open for a couple of weeks now. How many people have you seen come in?
MCBRIDE: We've already seen more than 50 people walk in. I'm told that on one day, eight new people walked into the service. It shows you without it being officially open, just opening its doors on 24 August without an official opening or any other promotion, the need in the community. And as I said, in the other services that are open, we've already seen 22,000 free walk-in appointments, across the country, 500,000, which is why at the last election we committed to expand the number of centres from 61 to 92. And we'll be opening our 60th centre before the end of the year to make sure that wherever Australians live, there is free support closer to home and, importantly when they need it for free.
JOURNALIST: Do you have stats like that for Tasmanian clinics? Like, how many people in Tasmania are using these services?
MCBRIDE: In Tasmania, we have services in Launceston, in Devonport, in Burnie and since they've been open, we've seen more than 22,000 free walk-in appointments. We know nationally and from a clinical review of the chief psychiatrist, Professor Sophie Davison, that what she has described as really promising early results is people who had otherwise fallen through the cracks who hadn't been able to access support and now are seeking support. There was one example in my local community, a young tradie, who had never sought support, but walked into the door of a Medicare Mental Health Centre and now has the wraparound care that he needs. They're the type of people who are most at risk who otherwise haven't been able to access services and now have that free and locally.
JOURNALIST: The appeal of a free walk-in service is obvious and this is very welcoming this morning. What would you say to someone who might have reservations when it comes to privacy or even security in such an open environment?
MCBRIDE: These services are safe by design. When you look at the design, it is a very welcoming place. But there are all of the safety features that are needed in a service like this. It's confidential, people will be treated respectfully and to know that they are safe and welcome is what's really opening up access and encouraging people to seek support who otherwise would never have- who've reached out.
JOURNALIST: The Senator might correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems to be a pretty unique service for southern Tasmania. Do you encourage people from out of area to come here, or would you prefer that it's just for this community?
MCBRIDE: As I said, we're expanding these services. There'll be a fifth one coming to Tasmania in the coming years. We want to make sure that people have services like this close to home. We're also introducing a new free digital mental health service, Medicare Mental Health Check In, where anyone over 16 can access free support via telehealth from qualified mental health professionals, understanding that for some people services are still a little bit kind of outside of their community. But our intention is to make sure that wherever you live, there's the right kind of support for you. So the fourth centre opening in Tasmania, the 57th across the country, and Australia's first free digital mental health service now available to everyone wherever they live.
JOURNALIST: What are the opening hours for this?
MCBRIDE: The opening hours here are 10:00 to 6:00, Monday to Friday. The good thing about the flexibility of the model, commissioned through the Primary Health Networks and through a local provider here, Stride, they can tailor the hours to the needs of the community. I've seen some which are open late at night, others on weekends, to best meet the community's needs and when people can access the care. And I know having services up to six o'clock at night does make a big difference, especially for working people and families.
JOURNALIST: Excellent, thank you.
JENNY DODD, OPERATIONS MANAGER, STRIDE: I'm Jenny. I’m the operations manager for Stride and operate all the Medicare Mental Health Centres across Tasmania.
JOURNALIST: What's your last name?
DODD: Dodd, sorry. Jenny Dodd.
JOURNALIST: D-O …
DODD: [Interrupts] D-O-D-D. Yeah.
JOURNALIST: Lovely. Well, yeah, I mean, if you want to talk us through – so someone walks in, what's the first thing that will happen and what are the options for them here?
DODD: Yeah, so people will walk in through the door and we have a reception team. And in the first instance, if it's a first presentation, ideally we'll meet with a peer – so somebody with lived experience who can walk alongside them and kind of see where they’re at, just meet them where they're at and find out what's going on, what kind of supports they require. Sometimes people just come in and just need a conversation or chat, and pointed to different services across the community. Others, they will require ongoing care, so we provide support for up to six months with our clinicians. And once they've presented to us and- we'll have a chat as a team and do a bit of a consultation and see what services they want ongoing.
JOURNALIST: And that's all in the same time that they walk in? They don't have to then come back?
DODD: They can come back for ongoing appointments, but when they first arrive, they will be met with a peer, and then if needed we can get a clinician in too if it’s quite acute, and then we can refer them on if needed.
JOURNALIST: Is it a bit tricky, given you don't really know anything about them, you don't have a referral from them? Does that create a bit of a challenge, in a sense?
DODD: I think the team are so well skilled in the fact that they're really on picking what can be quite a complex web of kind of- so it's really- the team are phenomenal in the fact that they can sit down and have those conversations and really kind of meet them where they're at, but also nut out what needs to be- what the issues are. And obviously, with mental health, one thing can open many doors, so the first thing is just to step through the door and start the conversation. I think that's really, really important.
JOURNALIST: And I asked the Assistant Minister about privacy and security – is that something that a lot of planning goes into?
DODD: Absolutely, when we designed the service, the services are all very secure. It’s all on swipe card access, so if we need to be safe and we need to lock the service down, or the same- we kind of- we can try and keep it as confidential as we can. Obviously, there's a door at the front, but there's also a door at the side so if people don't want to be seen. Trying to break that stigma of people walking through, there's an option of coming through side door as well. And then, obviously we just treat everybody with respect, and confidentiality is key. It can be quite tricky in such a small community, so we've had instances where people have presented and the team have previously worked with them. So it's just working with the team to kind of identify and go, conflict of interest here and kind of working around those things.
JOURNALIST: Have you had to turn someone away yet, or you've been able to keep up with demand?
DODD: No, keep up with demand. It's been busy. I think the busiest day, we've had seven or eight walk-ins. We're averaging about four to five per day, and that's not including the ongoing appointments that people have got scheduled in as well. The team are doing a phenomenal job.
JOURNALIST: What would your per day capacity be, just to give us an idea?
DODD: Per day capacity. I think we've got a growing team, so we're still recruiting. I mean, we wouldn't turn anybody away. Yeah, we wouldn't turn anybody away.
JOURNALIST: How many peers do you currently have?
DODD: So we have two peers and we are recruiting for another clinician. So we've got three clinicians and two peers.
JOURNALIST: And there's a lot of talk about the stresses that cost of living causes at the moment. Are we seeing people sort of come in and say, this is the first time that I've ever had to seek some support because I'm just feeling things I've never felt before – is that a fair statement?
DODD: It is, yeah. I mean, we had a really beautiful story last week. There's a lady who's watched the service be developed. Obviously, it was a building site for a long time. She crosses over the road to the shopping centre weekly, and she's really struggled and needed some support for a while. And she's been passing by, and even when we've been open she's been walking past going, I don't know if I should go in. But last week she took the first step through the door, and now she's got ongoing support and we've really helped to connect her in and get those supports where needed.
JOURNALIST: That's beautiful. Thank you.
DODD: Thank you.