REPORTER: So we’re here today at the opening for this walk-in mental health clinic in Mount Isa. What does the opening today mean?
ASSISTANT MINISTER EMMA MCBRIDE: This will make such a big difference to local people in Mount Isa. For too long, it’s been too hard for people living in places like Mount Isa to be able to access mental health support and care. We’re bringing mental health into the heart of Medicare and centres into the heart of communities to make sure that wherever you live, you can walk in without an appointment, without a referral and get free support and care.
JOURNALIST: How does this Mount Isa centre fit into the national mental health plan?
MCBRIDE: This is part of the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement, with bilaterals with each state and territory. And in Queensland, where this will be the fourteenth Medicare Mental Health Centre open in Queensland of 24 that we’re opening to make sure that wherever you live, you’ve got support closer to home. Importantly, this Medicare Mental Health Centre will also be networked to our virtual network of psychiatrists and psychologists. So if someone does walk into the centre in Mount Isa and needs that more expert clinical care, that will also be able to be arranged for them.
JOURNALIST: How are these centres being funded long-term? Is this a pilot program, or is it permanent?
MCBRIDE: This is permanent funding. We want people to know right around the country and in places like Mount Isa that when these centres are established, that they will be there, and that a doctor or a local pharmacist can have confidence in referring someone to this centre and know that that support and care will be there. So the funding for this particular service is $1.3 million, and jointly funded between the Commonwealth and the state government and part of the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement, and the funding- so that it will be ongoing funding for people and communities right around the country.
JOURNALIST: The demand for mental health support is rising across Australia. We know that rural and remote health needs a lot of support. How confident are you that this type of model will be able to keep up with demand that we have out here?
MCBRIDE: As we’ve rolled out the centres across the country, and I was opening the centre in Redcliffe yesterday, and more recently in Caboolture and then Strathpine, and we’ve seen that the demand is high. Which is why we’re making sure that the centres have the right resourcing and the right staff to be able to meet those needs, and also to make sure that as part of the renegotiations of the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement that this is a priority. And at the recent federal election, I was able to secure $1.1 billion for mental health and suicide prevention right across the country, and to make sure that these services have the support and resources that they need.
JOURNALIST: What does success look like to you when it comes to this Mount Isa centre?
MCBRIDE: For me, I’m a mental health worker by background, and I worked in acute inpatient units for many years. For me to know that someone will be able to walk into a welcoming place where they feel safe, where they’ll be treated compassionately and where they’ll get the wraparound support that they need, that’s what success looks like. That’s what your community deserves, and that’s what this centre will provide.
And I want to thank the staff who will be working at the Medicare Mental Health Centre here in Mount Isa. I know that it’s the local staff, with the connections that they have with people and communities, that provides that trust. And particularly the peer workers, people bringing their own personal experience to walk alongside other people, is sometimes the best care that you can get.