Mental health gets funding
Almost $6 million will be spent on delivering six mental health beds to the Pilbara that were promised by the Minister for Mental Health last year.
In last week's State Budget, $5.9 million over 2015-16 is earmarked for the construction of a new sub-acute step-down service for the Pilbara, predicted to open in Karratha in 2016-17.
Minister Helen Morton said the service would provide short-term supported residential care and treatment to help people manage a change in mental health, where acute care in hospital was not required.
She said step-down care helped people transition back into the community after they were released from acute hospital care.
The funds are part of $26 million in mental health funding to be delivered across the State during the next four years as part of a plan to halve the number of suicides and suicide attempts in WA within the next 10 years.
Last Friday, Ms Morton said the five-year Suicide Prevention 2020: Together We Can Save Lives plan would focus on high-risk groups such as those who had attempted suicide, people with mental illness, Aboriginal people and children bereaved by suicide.
Member for the Pilbara Brendon Grylls said the funding addressed years of calls for a mental health facility in the region.
"The mental health question looks like it's been answered with the new funding suggesting we'll be able to build that new facility at the health campus (currently under construction in Karratha)," he said.
"The campus will allow people to be cared for close to home."
But shadow minister for health Stephen Dawson said it was disappointing the funding had taken so long as a commitment to establish a mental health facility had been promised before the 2013 election.
He said he welcomed the Government's announcement of the new suicide prevention strategy, but feared the allocation of six mental health beds for the whole region was going to prove inadequate.
"With the Government's focus on Pilbara cities, my fear is that six beds will not be enough to cope with a growing population," he said.
"More people die by suicide in WA than in road accidents - we all need to work harder to increase awareness of the issue and decrease the number of people dying.
"With the last strategy expiring in December 2017, the State has gone 17 months without a plan to tackle the scourge of suicide."
If you or someone you know is thinking of suicide, phone Lifeline on 13 11 14.
