Health services failing children
WA child and adolescent mental health services are so overstretched they are reaching fewer than one in eight of the children who need them, the sector's governing body has warned.
The annual report of the Child and Adolescent Health Service's governing council, which was set up a year ago, said community mental health services treated 2480 children in 2011 - 0.6 per cent of all children in Perth.
It was not only less than the national target of 1.6 per cent, it fell well short of the 5 per cent of children and teenagers believed to have significant and severe mental disorders needing specialist treatment, which equated to 20,410 children in Perth.
The report said this meant services were restricted to the most severely ill children and there was "very limited clinical capacity" to intervene early in escalating mental health problems.
Council chairwoman Rosanna Capolingua described the situation as "incredibly serious" and said her group felt so strongly that members planned to meet Mental Health Minister Helen Morton to raise the issue.
She said it was not only the baby boom and WA's growing population that were adding to the number of children needing help. The prevalence of mental health problems in young people was also rising.
"We have an increase in the adolescent suicide rate and if you take that as the measure of the worst that can happen, you have this peak but the mountain underneath is also enormous," Dr Capolingua said.
"Services have had to reengineer themselves and are working hard to provide as much care as they can but there's just not enough and that means intervention only comes when the problems are severe."
Acting director-general of health Bryant Stokes said the Mental Health Commission was working with his department and the Drug and Alcohol Office to develop a services plan that would give a 10-year blueprint.
Significant investments already made included setting up an acute community intervention team to support children and adolescents in crisis and an acute response team to provide specialist assessments in hospital emergency departments.
The opening of two Headspace services for youth was providing access to a range of mental health services.
Dr Capolingua also reiterated the need for the new children's hospital to have enough capacity to meet the tertiary hospital needs of children after Professor Stokes confirmed at a budget estimates hearing yesterday that the matter was still before State Cabinet.
It was looking at options including increasing bed numbers within the current design or building an extra storey, with building cost estimates ranging from $35 million to $100 million.
Dr Capolingua said she was not concerned about the time it took the Government to decide on the plans, provided it future-proofed the hospital.
If you or someone you know needs help, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. Or the Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800.
