Two financial years ago, the ACT had Australia’s worst waiting times for emergency psychiatric care, recently published data shows. The Canberra Liberals believe this is cause for concern, but the ACT Government says it has improved matters since then.

According to the latest Report on Government Services, only 41.9 per cent of people seeking psychiatric care at Canberra’s emergency departments were seen on time in 2019-20 – 26 per cent below the national average of 68 per cent, and more than 10 points below the second worst (NSW). Three years before, in 2016–17, almost 60 per cent of ACT mental health patients were treated on time.

Proportion of mental health-related emergency department presentations and all emergency department presentations seen within clinically recommended waiting times (ROGS)

Leanne Castley, ACT Shadow Health Minister, said the big drop in the timeliness of mental health treatment in the ACT between 2016–17 and 2019–20 was “appalling”.

“It is a huge concern that three in five Canberrans turning up at Canberra hospitals for mental health treatment are not being seen on time,” Ms Castley said.

“The ACT has been the worst performing state for the past three years, which shows the Labor-Greens government has done little to improve care for mental health patients.

“We know the pandemic has had a big impact on people’s mental health, and it is appalling that we are going backwards in the care we provide.

“We would expect more Canberrans to need mental health treatment, which will put even more strain on a system already failing to cope.”

ACT Government response

Katrina Rea, Canberra Health Services executive director of mental health, justice health, and alcohol and drug services, said the ROGS figures “provide an indication of where the health system was at that time”.

ACT Health reports quarterly on ACT public health services performance, providing a more contemporary snapshot of general wait times. A government spokesperson said this data was not in the public domain.

A spokesperson said CHS introduced “more mental health patient flow resources to support timely admission to mental health inpatient units”.

But the government wants to keep mentally ill people out of hospitals, if possible, and to intervene before matters reach crisis.

“Canberrans should be able to get the right level of care at the right time in the right setting,” said Emma Davidson, ACT Minister for Mental Health. “Advocates, mental health organisations, and people with lived experience have been clear that the ACT needs more services delivering early intervention and prevention support.

“Hospital settings are only one piece of the mental health services landscape, and are at the crisis end of the needs spectrum. When people present to the hospital for their mental health, it means they have not received appropriate early intervention support.

“People who go to hospital seeking mental health care often have complex needs. It can take time to understand what their clinical needs are which may be a combination of physical, mental, and drug and alcohol care. It is worth investing proper time to do this so people can receive care for their needs.

“The ACT Government is focusing on providing more access to early intervention and prevention services to ensure that more people can build management strategies, networks, and supports that help them fully engage and participate across our community.”

As part of a mental health and wellbeing focus on early intervention and prevention, the ACT Government has implemented services such as the Safe Haven in Belconnen, Mindmap youth navigation portal, Step Up Step Down, Youth Aware of Mental Health school program, and the Police, Ambulance and Clinician Early Response program expansion, and increased funding for community mental health teams to intervene before people needed to visit the emergency department.

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“It has been a challenging two years for many Canberrans,” Ms Davidson said, “which is why a number of support services have been funded through COVID-relief packages to help people who are experiencing distress, anxiety and loneliness.”

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The ACT has several clinical units to support people with moderate-severe mental health needs, Ms Davidson said, including the new 10-bed mental health low dependency ward at the Canberra Hospital.

The ACT Government worked with the Capital Health Network and the peak mental health organisations to develop the ACT Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan. The plan sets out the directions for addressing mental health needs of the ACT across the whole sector.

The government is also finalising a Territory-wide Health Services Plan, which will identify priorities for health service development and redesign of government services over the next five years.

A Mental Health Services Plan cascading from the Territory-wide Health Services Plan is under development. It will shift the focus of service provision from the hospital to the community setting.

Canberra Health Services has expanded its teams that provide follow-up services to children and adolescents discharged from hospitals, and that triage and assess children and adolescents who present to the Canberra Hospital emergency department with mental health vulnerabilities. The HAART Intensive Home Treatment service was expanded; it provides intensive and high frequency contact so consumers could be diverted away from hospital and discharged into the community earlier.