MELINDA JAMES, HOST: Okay, let’s move on now to a new service that will be opening up here in Fairy Meadow, in fact, in Wollongong. It’s a new kids’ mental health hub. To tell us more, I’m joined by the Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, Emma McBride. Emma McBride, thanks so much for joining us.
ASSISTANT MINISTER EMMA MCBRIDE: Good to be with you, Mel.
JAMES: So look, what is this mental health kids hub? There are a few of them around now, but it’s the first one for our region.
MCBRIDE: It is. We know that in Australia today, about one in seven young children aged 4 to 17 will experience a mental health challenge in any given year, and that early intervention, early support matters to help children and families to thrive, and that’s what these kids hubs are. They’re for children and families aged 0 to 12 get wraparound multidisciplinary support for emotional developmental or social problems and it's already had a really good start in this community.
JAMES: Okay, so it's been open for a little while, has it? So, I mean, some people are probably hearing about it for the first time. So has it been well kind of utilised?
MCBRIDE: It has. It first opened at a temporary location back in December 2024, but we're at the permanent location, which it just moved to from the start of this year. And we've seen already more than 3000 occasions of service. So that's young children, parents and caregivers being able to access free support under Medicare for these really important social, emotional or developmental needs provided by expert clinicians, social workers, psychologists, mental health nurses in a wraparound way. So the support can be tailored to individual child and family to meet their needs close to home. And as I said, free under Medicare.
JAMES: So can you give us some examples of who might use this particular service? Is it for ongoing mental health support or is it for those initial consultations and you're then kind of pointed in the direction of someone else? Who would use one of these places?
MCBRIDE: So an example would be if a parent has noticed that a child perhaps isn't kind of settling in well at school and they're having some emotional challenges and some difficulties, it might be that the teacher might say to the parent, you know, the kids hub is available, it's free and you don't need a referral. It might be that something has been noticed by a family member or a friend, and some extra support for the parent in being able to be able to parent that child. It's available to any family in the catchment area. It's in partnership with the Illawarra Local Health District and it's co-funded by the state government and the Commonwealth. And I'd like to thank Ali Byrnes, Member for Cunningham, for her advocacy, and the state government for joining us in funding this really vital service for children and young people within community.
JAMES: What about for some more serious ongoing issues? We know- we keep hearing at least about a kind of mental health epidemic. We hear about it with adolescents. This is for 12 and under. But in terms of kids who might have sort of long running issues with anxiety or maybe even more serious mental health disorders as well, can the hub deal with that or is it just a place for a kind of initial contact?
MCBRIDE: Yes, it can. As I mentioned, the hub is staffed by experienced mental health practitioners, whether they're psychologists, social workers, mental health nurses, dietitians, who work in a holistic way to provide that sort of wraparound multidisciplinary care. So if a child does have a more severe or ongoing mental health challenge that requires more complex care, that is also available through the hub. The hub can also help parents and caregivers to navigate the local health system as well. So if there are other services that might be more suitable to their needs, that they can also warmly hand them over or to connect them with.
But any parent who's listening can contact the mental health phone line on 1800-595-212 to see if this service might be suitable to their young person or go to medicarementalhealth.gov.au to see if this is the right service for them.
JAMES: Okay, so this is obviously in response to what we're also hearing, which is a terrible shortage of psychiatrists and psychologists for children. I know that this kind of overlaps sort of state and federal responsibilities. But is this in response to what you've been hearing from families about how hard it is to get kids to see mental health professionals?
MCBRIDE: As a mental health worker myself who worked in a regional hospital for nearly 10 years, I saw too many parents and families not being able to get the support they need, and that then problem escalating into crisis because simply support wasn't available. So these centres, and there's four in New South Wales, 17 across the country, are designed to bring support closer to home for children and families and importantly free. Reducing the barriers to access of costs and time and wait lists that so many parents and families encountered. And I know from the service that's been introduced in the Central Coast and the community that I represent, one in Orange and others interstate, that there has been a really strong response. So the demand is there and it's providing quality care affordably and close to home for parents and families.
JAMES: So it's 12 and under. And I mentioned it just before, we have these Medicare Mental Health Hubs for 16 years and older as well. And we have one of those in Shellharbour that's been operating for some time. Is there a gap there for those really crucial years of adolescence where- you know, we say 60 is the new 40, but sometimes I think 11 15 or 16, yeah?
MCBRIDE: Many of your listeners would be familiar with headspace, and headspace was first launched in Australia now more than 20 years ago. And headspace is designed for 12 to 25-year-olds. So what we're trying to do now is be able to provide care and support across the lifespan. So whatever age you are or whatever needs you are, there's a service close to home that is free under Medicare. Because we know that your mental health and your wellbeing is just as important as your physical health, which is why we're creating this system across the lifespan and around the country.
JAMES: Just before I let you go, our listeners will hear a little bit later on from Toby Halligan. They've been hearing from him in the news. This is the family spokesman for the family of Jade Young, who was the architect who was killed in the Bondi stabbings. The family has been very outspoken about mental health service provision from both the New South Wales Government and more broadly across the country. They've raised concerns about a lack of coordination and information sharing between states in relation to Joel Cauchi, for example, some of the recommendations that came out of the Coronial Report, some criticisms of not much having been done since COAG way back in 2006, saying that they needed to do more to coordinate mental health services in this country. Are some of those criticisms warranted about a lack of coordination federally in relation to mental health services?
MCBRIDE: This is important advocacy, and one of the things that we've done as a government is elevate the voice of lived experience so that any reforms that we make are informed by people who have had their own direct experience. We now have a National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement and bilaterals with each state and territory to improve coordination and collaboration. This service is one example of those. It exists under that national agreement. It's co-funded by the Commonwealth and the state government, and it's run by the local health district, so a good example of what coordinated care and continuity of care can look like when state and territories work together with the Commonwealth.
We've also, as I said, really platformed lived experience to make sure, and I worked within the system and I accept that sometimes the system didn't work as well as it should and let people down, which is why we've now set up peak bodies for carers, for people with their own- consumers with their own lived experience. And they've addressed the meetings of the Commonwealth health and mental health ministers directly and spoken to them, including about what happened at Bondi. And one of the outcomes of that was an increased sharing of information across jurisdictions. There have been some practical outcomes that have come from these tragic consequences. And I hope that when we now are going into negotiating the new National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement, that the voice of lived experience will be really amplified into decision-making and co-production so that we can see a real change in the way that mental health systems of support and care are designed, implemented and evaluated and monitored.
JAMES: Emma McBride, thank you so much for coming in this morning. Thank you.
MCBRIDE: Good to be with you.
JAMES: That's Emma McBride, who is the Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention federally, here to launch the new permanent digs for the Kids Mental Health Hub there in Fairy Meadow.