Submissions
Supported Accommodation
This submission is made by Barrier Breakers Inc, a mental health advocacy organisation; with support from other Gippsland based organisations, who share responsibility for providing supported accommodation for those who are not provided for by the mental health service in the region.
Major points of interest:
- Gippsland has more than a 100 fewer beds for people with a mental illness than the region had in the decade 1966-76 – a 62% reduction in beds and a 40% increase in population.
- 1434 people with a severe mental illness competing for only 33 acute care beds.
- There is no central record of accommodation needs for people with a mental illness in the Gippsland region.
- Less than 50 beds available in the whole region that are specifically reserved for people with a mental illness who require supported accommodation.
- There is no mental health specific supported accommodation for indigenous peoples in the Gippsland region.
Stage one of our research into the extent and effeteness of mental health services in the Gippsland region is nearing completion. This Reichstein Foundation funded program is to be augmented by a further research program that is to be partly funded by a federal government grant administered by the Mental Health Council of Australia (MCHA). A copy of the findings from stage one of the initial research are here
Submission responce Here in pdf
A directory of service providers, which was compiled under the Reichstein Program, is available to health professionals and services providers in hard copy or CD format.
DHS Green paper response
While its format has been modified somewhat to remove sections not relevant . Because mental health matters’, in the main the content is a direct response, from a Gippsland perspective, to the DHS consultation paper.
While recommendations from this report have been brought together at the front of the submission, we strongly recommend that the larger report be read as it provides context critical to understanding the recommendations and the order in which they are presented.
