Ms THEOPHANOUS (Northcote): I consider it an honour to contribute to the debate on this significant bill, a bill which represents real transformational change in its own right but also represents a process of truth, investment and reform which will improve the lives of countless Victorians. Victoria’s mental health system is broken. We know this. For years the system has been overburdened, overly complicated and under-resourced. For Victorians experiencing mental ill health, the realities of this system are distressing. It has meant barrier after barrier to seeking care and convoluted pathways that are almost impossible to navigate. It has meant people in need being turned away because their conditions are too severe or not severe enough. For our heroic mental health workforce it has meant impossible case loads, workforce exhaustion and an overwhelming sense of disempowerment.
All this was brought to light by the Andrews Labor government’s Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. This was a confronting process, but it was a necessary one, because the result of this royal commission was a clear and unequivocal blueprint for a complete rebuild of the system into one that puts people first. It delivers hope and a direction for the future. And as we have done time and again on issues from family violence to treaty to climate action, Labor has not shied away from the challenge. We have committed to delivering real change. We commit to delivering on every single recommendation of the royal commission. We said, ‘Yes, our state, Victorians, deserve better’, and we got to work.
Across the state budgets since the release of the royal commission’s interim report we have already seen a record $6 billion directly invested into mental health reform in Victoria. New services are already opening their doors, new workers are being recruited and new voices are being heard in the design of programs and services—but there is more to do. The complete transformation of our mental health system will not happen overnight; it is a decade-long reform. But significant change is already underway.
Coming into this Parliament in 2018 I knew that mental health was a priority for me and my community. The past three years have only reinforced my commitment to achieving greater investment and fairer access to services in the inner north. Indeed making a submission to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System was one of the earliest steps I took to outline the needs of my community. As I have raised before in this place, the inner north of Melbourne faces a significant service gap when it comes to health and mental health infrastructure. That means that every day I am having conversations with residents, schools, local businesses, community organisations and clubs, and while the conversations are as diverse as our community the one issue that has consistently and insistently been raised with me is mental health. Whether that is a principal concerned about the mental health and wellbeing of their students, a small business owner trying to support their staff through tough times, parents persevering with perinatal anxiety and depression or an older resident coming up for a talk on the street feeling isolated and alone, the experience of mental health issues and concerns around access to services permeate the conversations I have with my community.
The recent 2021 census for the first time recorded long-term mental health conditions, and the results were confronting but not surprising to me. Over 8000 locals, or 12.5 per cent of residents of Northcote, reported a long-term mental health condition. This is compared to 8.8 per cent across Victoria and Australia more broadly. This tracks strongly with my discussions with residents and stakeholders like Headspace, the Fitzroy community legal centre and Women’s Health in the North and providers like Your Community Health and PANDA.
Recently I have also been seeking direct feedback from my community through an electorate-wide mental health survey. I invited residents to share their priorities for and experiences of our mental health system, and the response was overwhelming. Hundreds of locals have now shared their thoughts and priorities with me, and I am hearing loud and clear that the inner north needs investment in more public mental health services. Many responses were from healthcare workers themselves, who spoke about seeing too many people who cannot get the care they need. There was a huge amount of support needed for infant, child, youth and family services both in community and in school settings. And as a proudly diverse community with strong multicultural, First Nations and LGBTIQ networks, there were many responses which called for culturally appropriate and affirming services. The stories people shared with me through this survey, emails, phone calls, forums and conversations on the street paint a picture of a real local need that is not being met by local services, but there was also real hope and real excitement about the Andrews Labor government’s reform agenda.
One example is the massive investment already underway to support better mental health outcomes for young people through our schools. We know that the vast majority of mental health conditions occur before the age of 25, so investing in our young people is critical. Labor has now rolled out mental health practitioners in every single state secondary school across the state, including Northcote High, Thornbury High and Preston High. From next year our state primary schools will have their own mental health practitioners supporting our children through this important time in their lives. Thornbury Primary has been one of the trial schools participating in the early rollout of this program, and the feedback has been absolutely heartening. In coming years Northcote schools will also see the full rollout of the Schools Mental Health Fund, which will deliver a suite of evidence-based programs and supports that schools can tailor to their students’ needs.
In Parkville earlier this year I was thrilled to see the opening of Victoria’s fourth youth prevention and recovery units, or YPARC. Totalling 50 new beds, this service will provide short-term residential care in a homelike setting for 200 young people per year stepping up from community care or down from hospital care. These investments are already delivering real change, but as I said, there is more to do.
One of the flagship recommendations of the royal commission is building the missing middle of our system, with 60 adult health services as well as 13 for infants, children and young people. The first six of the 60 will be up and running in 2022, and 21 more locations have already been identified. As I have said many times before, I will not stop working to ensure that the inner north benefits from the rollout of these local services. Northcote needs access to mental health supports close to home, not further afield. We know that the mental health of parents is critical to long-term outcomes for children, and for those following on the journey you will know that I am determined to keep raising awareness of the need for more support for infants and families in Northcote as well. Supporting women and supporting families means supporting our next generation of kids and young people too. That is why the royal commission intrinsically linked infant, child and family mental health and why the Victorian government is investing in initiatives like our three new hubs and expanding our network of early parenting centres.
The people of Northcote understand the need for this reform in a very personal way. They understand the importance of what this government is achieving, and they are backing it in. I have been stunned by the generous openness of locals willing to talk about their own lived experience as carers, as people impacted by mental ill health and as mental health workers, and I have been spurred by the incredible support I have received from locals backing in my work to boost services locally.
The investment in our mental health system needs to be sustained and ongoing. It is why we introduced the mental health levy and why it remains beyond disappointing that those opposite continue to flip-flop on this very important issue of sustained funding. There is a choice to make here about the value we put on mental wellbeing in our community and the value we put on the services providing it and the workforce that support people in their times of need. For too long the system has suffered from patchwork investment. The levy brings certainty to this sector and locks in mental health as core business in our public health system. That is as it should be. And of course investment is only one element of our reform.
Another foundational element is people building our workforce. Nothing happens without people, and our mental health workforce have been giving their all with empathy and passion day after day. I am proud to say that Labor has provided over $269 million in dedicated investment in the mental health workforce in the past two years, and over 2500 mental health jobs have been created in Victoria. There are also incredible pathways for those seeking to enter that workforce, with free TAFE programs across mental health and peer support now available. I am looking forward to catching up with some of our local mental health workers and the Health and Community Services Union in a couple of weeks to hear more about how we can best support them through this rapid transition period.
This bill encapsulates our ambitions and our commitment to mental health reform in Victoria, one that puts human rights, lived experience, dignity and autonomy at its core. This bill is about putting people first. It builds on Labor’s extraordinary record of delivering social and economic reform that makes our state fairer and stronger. We are doing the hard yards. We are delivering the mental health system Victorians need and deserve. I commend both the former and current ministers for their work, and I commend the bill to the house.
