ELLIE WHITEAKER, WA SENATOR: Good morning. My name's Ellie Whiteaker. I'm a Senator for Western Australia, and I'm so thrilled to be joined here in the South West by Assistant Minister for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Rural and Regional Health, Emma McBride. It's always lovely to welcome some of our colleagues into Western Australia and particularly into regional Western Australia. We've just toured the Eaton Fair, Bunbury Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, and Dr Craig and his team do a brilliant job in here. It's one of the busiest clinics in the country, and I know, speaking to South West locals, that it's made a huge difference to the healthcare that they can receive. Our government is committed to making healthcare accessible and affordable so that no matter where you live, you can get the healthcare you need with your Medicare card. This clinic also transitioned to fully bulk billing under our new Medicare incentives, and I think it's just testament to the team here, to their commitment to delivering free healthcare for locals here in Eaton and right across the South West region.
I'm going to hand over to the Assistant Minister, who has a really exciting announcement for the South West about expanding mental healthcare here. And so, it's a real honour to be able to welcome the Assistant Minister, Emma McBride.
ASSISTANT MINISTER EMMA MCBRIDE: Thank you very much, Ellie. And I want to start as well by thanking Craig and the team here at the Urgent Care Clinic. It's seen more than 43,000 local people getting urgent care for free backed by Medicare since it opened, and many of those, about one in four, are children under 15. So this Urgent Care Clinic is proving to be a really safe and trusted alternative to the emergency department for local families. And also, about one in four of these appointments are outside of normal GP hours, so giving that extended care for people within the local community. A really incredible service provided to locals here in the South West.
And building on that, our government, and I'm pleased to announce with Senator Whiteaker, that our government will be introducing a Medicare urgent care- sorry, a Medicare Mental Health Centre for the South West. Medicare Mental Health Centres are free services where people can walk in and receive support and care all backed by Medicare. You're likely to be greeted by a peer worker, someone who's walked in their shoes and be provided support tailored to your needs by a multidisciplinary team of social workers, counsellors, and psychologists. These centres are part of our $1.1 billion investment in mental health and wellbeing, an $8 billion investment this financial year, and one of 92 across the country, 10 in WA, five more to be to be announced, including this one. And what we know, as I'm a mental health worker myself, is that it would have been too hard for people to be able to receive the support and care that they needed, and distress could escalate to crisis because support wasn't available. Our Medicare Mental Health Centres are bringing that care to the heart of communities for free, where people can walk in and get the support and care they need.
We also have another announcement today for the South West, a new Gidget House, a perinatal mental health centre funded by the Commonwealth providing perinatal care in that vital naught to 12 month of a child's life. We know that in Australia about 100,000 adults experience perinatal depression or anxiety in a year. One in five who are expected mothers, one in 10 who are expected fathers. And these centres that we're introducing, 20 across the country in partnership with Gidget House, an experienced provider of perinatal care, will also be free to access for local people. Another investment in the local community to be able to improve access for local people close to home and free under Medicare.
JOURNALIST: With the cost of living at the moment, it's quite expensive, I guess how important is it to invest in mental health services in times like this?
MCBRIDE: We know that there are lots of different drivers of distress, and financial pressures are a driver of distress, and it's absolutely vital that we have services close to home and for free so that people can get information and advice and wraparound support and care depending on their needs. And as I said, this is part of a $1.1 billion investment in mental health and wellbeing, of $8 billion that we're investing this year, to make sure that people in communities, including in the South West, can get support closer to home when they need it. The sooner someone can get support, the less barriers to access it, much better it is for their health and wellbeing and for that of our communities.
JOURNALIST: And I guess, just building on regional healthcare, is that something that's important?
MCBRIDE: It absolutely is. I'm a pharmacist who ran a pharmacy department in a regional hospital, and I saw people where distress did end up in crisis because they couldn't get support or people, as a pharmacist, who avoided or delayed filling prescriptions because they simply couldn't afford to pay. One of the other cost of living measures that we've made is reducing the cost of prescriptions. So, prescriptions when we came to government were $42.50. Now, a prescription for a general patient is $25, and less than when I first- when I was working as a pharmacist. The cheapest they've been since 2004. We’ve also capped the cost of concession medicines as well so that people know that they won't have to pay more than $7.70. So really important for us as part of the Labor Government and representing local communities to know that whether it's filling a prescription, seeing a GP, getting mental health support, that it is all free and much more affordable under Medicare.
JOURNALIST: And the perinatal- how many people is that expected to help each year?
MCBRIDE: So we know with these perinatal services that they support about 700 to 800 new or expectant parents each year, and I have had the real privilege of opening them in different parts of the country. And typically, they're co-located in a place like where we are today, in a shopping centre, a place where a new or expectant parent would go. And again, it's so important in that vital perinatal period, where we know 100,000 Australians each year are impacted by perinatal depression and or anxiety, the impact that support soon and for free can have on them, on their families. And so, we're so proud that there will be a Gidget House within this community as well in the near future.
JOURNALIST: So the two new facilities, so when can the public expect to see them open?
MCBRIDE: So with the Medicare Mental Health Centre, Typically, it's about sort of a 12 to 18-month process because we work with the local community in co-design and deep consultation to make sure that we provide the services that are most needed in the community. Once that community consultation has occurred, then the Primary Health Network will do an open competitive tender process to be able to secure the right provider. So we're expecting it to be open within the next 12 to 18 months.
With the perinatal mental health service, that will be then coming after that. But we're really pleased to see in addition to the Urgent Care Clinic, an increase in bulk billing, cheaper medicine, now two new mental health services. And also, Ellie and I are heading off straight after here to headspace, where there's been a boost to funding, more than $462,000, to make sure that young people aged 12 to 25 can get more support. We want to make sure that whatever your age or whatever your health needs are that we can meet them free and much more affordably under Medicare.
Thank you. Thanks for your interest.