2018-10-25
The Victorian Greens Say the Labor Government must take responsibility for its significant role in the mental health crisis in Victoria.
We welcome Labor’s commitment to a Royal Commission into Mental Health and more mental health workers in schools, however the system can’t wait to be properly funded.
The Liberal Government made the plans to roll all the state’s community mental health funding into the NDIS, and the Labor Government implemented them. After decades of underfunding, this sent the system into crisis. This has meant 90 per cent of people with mental health issues can’t access public care until they need to be hospitalised. Years later, Labor is finally making a small mends for that, but things should never have got so bad.
Quotes attributable to Lidia Thorpe, Victorian Greens Spokesperson on Mental Health:
“The Labor Government, and the Liberals before them, created the funding crisis thanks to years of neglect of the mental health sector. We are pleased they are finally recognising the deep problems in the system with a Royal Commission.”
“Hospitalisations for suicide have increased 19 per cent in the past four years, this coincides with the funding being stripped from the public community health sector for people with severe, but episodic conditions.”
“I’ll make sure we expose the problems in the system, how you need to be on the verge of suicide to get any help, how women and transgender people are not being kept safe in mental health hospitals, and how youth are missing out on care.”
“Information uncovered by a Royal Commission will be valuable, but we already know services need proper, secure funding to be effective. That is something we can and must do immediately.”