ZARA MARGOLIS, ABC NORTH WEST QLD: If you've ever tried to see a therapist, psychologist, or just some type of mental health professional, you'd know that in the North West it can be near impossible. Ridiculous wait times, maybe you can't see anyone locally at all, so you have to go on telehealth. Well, imagine being able to walk into a service and speak to someone face to face pretty much right away and for free. That's what's coming to Mount Isa next year, a federally-funded Medicare mental health centre. Emma McBride is the Federal Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention. Minister, so what is this centre?
EMMA MCBRIDE, ASSISTANT MINISTER: I'm really pleased to announce that residents of North West Queensland will soon have access to free walk-in mental health support and care with the opening of the new Medicare Mental Health Centre in Mount Isa. We've seen increasing demand across the country, including in North West Queensland, for mental health support. The long tail of COVID, natural disasters, droughts and the challenges of day-to-day life are really causing distress in our community. That's why we're rolling out 61 Medicare mental health centres across the country, including 19 in Queensland.
MARGOLIS: How will this system work? So you said it's going to be free and walk-in.
MCBRIDE: So someone will be able to walk in. They won't need an appointment, they won't need a diagnosis or they won't need a referral, reducing all of those barriers to access, which has sometimes meant that people haven't been able to get timely and affordable access to appropriate care. When they walk in, they're likely to be greeted by a peer worker. Sometimes the best supporting care you can get is from someone who has walked in your shoes. The centres will be staffed by multidisciplinary care teams, including social workers, nurses. And to make sure that every centre has access to specialist care, in the recent Budget, we've invested close to $30 million so every centre will have access to a psychologist and psychiatrist on call.
MARGOLIS: That sounds like a lot of staff. Do you have any ideas of the specifics around how many will be employed at the Mount Isa centre?
MCBRIDE: Typical mental health centres have a multidisciplinary team, including as I said, peer workers, social workers, mental health nurses, psychologists. So a typical workforce may be 5 to 10 working within the centre, but as part of a broader network. And as a mental health worker myself, I know how important it is to have the right staff with the right experience to be able to provide the expert support and care that people need.
MARGOLIS: Minister, you said those workers will be part of a network. Does that mean that those are workers already existing in the North West that will then rotate through the centre? Or are these new positions?
MCBRIDE: With Medicare mental health centres, how the government is setting them up or rolling them out across the country is through the 31 primary health networks. The Primary Health Networks will then commission local services to be able to operate the centres. But running them – and it's important that we're co-funding with the state government to make the best use of the mental health workforce that we have, particularly in regional and more remote communities. And just last October, I announced the new National Mental Health Workforce Strategy to make sure that we're growing the pipeline of mental health workers, including for the regions.
MARGOLIS: Because I know myself, even having to try and see a mental health professional over the past decade I've been here, the waitlists can be exorbitant, sometimes not conducive. Sometimes you have to see people on telehealth. Do you have any concerns about filling those positions?
MCBRIDE: What we've seen – and we already have now in Queensland, centres up and running in Townsville, in Kingaroy, in Rockhampton and in Bundaberg. These are places that are very attractive for mental health workers to be able to provide support and care from. And working in close partnership with the Queensland, with the Miles Government, has meant that we can make the best use of the mental health [audio skips] continue to grow the mental health workforce. I'm a mental health worker myself, I'm a pharmacist by background, and I worked in acute adult inpatient services in a regional hospital in my electorate. I know how important it is to have the skilled staff with the right support to provide the care that people need.
MARGOLIS: Who will this service be available to in terms of – so it's a Medicare centre, so imagining people will need a Medicare card in order to access it, but is there any other requirements?
MCBRIDE: The good thing about these centres and why they're having such an impact in communities, we're reducing the barriers to access, so you won't need a diagnosis, you won't need to wait for a referral, you won't need an appointment. So you'll be able to walk in free of charge and get on-the-spot support and care if you're in distress or more ongoing support for more complex mental health needs.
MARGOLIS: Is this a 24/7 service?
MCBRIDE: The services are being rolled out across the country, and the services typically – and this will be when the service is operational, typically the services are 9 to 5, Monday to Friday. Many of them have evenings and weekends, but this will be determined in the co-design and co-production with the community to make sure to get the best outcome for residents in the local community and in North West Queensland. There's also, and I will just mention to your listeners, a phone line that people can call as well. 1-800-595-212, if they want to be able to seek more information or be able to access a Medicare Mental Health Centre including the one that will be operating in the future in Mount Isa, which should be up and running by early next year.
MARGOLIS: Emma McBride, the Federal Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, speaking about the announcement of a new Medicare mental health centre in Mount Isa. It's going to be funded to the tune of about $1.2 million by the state and federal governments to provide on the spot support for people needing mental health assistance. So basically, a free walk-in mental health facility in the city, the exact location of that facility is yet to be decided, and the opening hours will also be decided during a community consultation process.