September 29 - October 27, 2024: Issue 635

 

Regan Persists: Local Gap in Youth Mental Health care Services needs listed by Wakehurst MP

Photo of NB Hospital by Cabrils.
In a Private Members Statement to the NSW Parliament on Friday October 18, Wakehurst MP Michael Regan reiterated his concerns that vulnerable young people were not separated from adults with mental health conditions in the short stay unit at Northern Beaches Hospital.


With the funding announced on July 23, 2022 for beds specifically for young people at NBH now reallocated, in part, to the Brookvale Safe Haven, Mr. Regan also indicated he would persist in ensuring a suite of guidelines of how to access services outside a hospital setting must be provided to those who present at the hospital, seeking help, who are not admitted.

The Brookvale Safe Haven opened on September 5. 

Brookvale Safe Haven is for young people aged 12 to 17 years who are feeling overwhelmed and experiencing distress. It is staffed by trained peer workers with lived experience of suicide and mental health clinicians.

Staff are there to, provide non-judgemental support, keep young people safe when in crisis, and help them find additional services to support their recovery.

Brookvale Safe Haven is open 4:00-8:00pm, seven days a week including public holidays (no referral and no costs involved)

Brookvale Safe Haven is on the Ground Floor, Brookvale Community Health Centre, 612/624 Pittwater Rd, Brookvale, NSW 2100  Phone: 02 9388 5044

However, once again, for those who cannot even afford bus fare, and many of us have dipped into our pockets for youngsters getting on buses locally without the fare, the problem of physical access is unmet.

Since August 2023 federal Mackellar MP Dr. Sophie Scamps and new state Wakehurst MP Michael Regan have been outspoken about the missing $11.4 million for child and youth mental health services in the Northern Beaches announced by the previous Wakehurst MP and long-term NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard.

Although Mr. Regan has welcomed the establishment of the Brookvale Safe Haven, this week he stated in Parliament;

''I acknowledge and reflect on the need for youth mental health services on the northern beaches. Over recent years, this has been a topic of considerable concern locally. It has been raised with me by many distressed parents of struggling kids and adolescents. Some parents have been at their wits' end in the middle of a crisis. Some have suffered the unimaginable loss of a child to suicide, and some are on the other side of a crisis, reflecting on how services could have been better. These are deeply personal stories.

Any parent knows the feeling of everything else fading to insignificance when the wellbeing of their child is at stake. When a young person is in severe and prolonged distress, the anguish experienced by them and those who love them is obviously profound, whether it is a mental health emergency such as a suicide attempt, or a chronic mental health condition such as depression, anxiety or eating disorders. The intangible nature of those conditions can make the problems even more confounding. Unfortunately, they can also be surrounded by social stigma. I thank all who have shared their experiences and stories with my office.

Those individual stories point to a structural problem that we desperately need to better understand and address. Data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in October last year found that in the previous 12 months, more than one-third of young Australians had experienced a mental health disorder and that mental health problems among young people have increased by almost 50 per cent in the past 15 years. The Premier is right to highlight the relationship between the increase in social media use in young people and that concerning trend. Prevention is always better than cure. I am encouraged by the consensus and policy options that are emerging to better regulate access to social media for kids.

In relation to youth mental health on the Northern Beaches, in June 2022 the former Government announced $11.4 million for enhanced services following some tragic and high-profile incidents. The funding was allocated to provide additional acute paediatric specialist mental health beds at Northern Beaches Hospital and more community-based services. 

Soon after I was elected, I began asking questions about the status of that funding, including in this Chamber. I quickly learnt that funding for the beds had not been spent and that the private Northern Beaches Hospital had not taken any steps to deliver them.

Unfortunately, that was a case of policy by press release by the former Government. The initial proposal was not based on robust feasibility studies, and the cost of creating additional dedicated beds exceeded the allocated funding.''

I thank Minister Jackson and her staff for working with me, my office and local Federal MPs on the issue and on how to use the remaining funds to best effect. '' Mr. Regan said

'' A round table was held in May this year, and in September a stakeholder meeting was held at Northern Beaches Hospital. I support their evidence-based approach to investing more funding into community-based mental health youth services, including establishing the Brookvale Safe Haven, which is now open. Comparatively, the Northern Beaches is well resourced. We are very grateful for that.

However, I still have serious concerns about the situation for youth mental health patients at Northern Beaches Hospital. I want to see a decision made about the remaining $4.5 million capital expenditure as soon as possible, because it has been over two years since the initial announcement and we need to get that money out the door.

I support using the funds to create an integrated, co-located hub for the State and for not-for-profit youth mental health service providers in Brookvale so there is a one-stop shop for young people seeking help. We must keep working to improve services for youth mental health patients at Northern Beaches Hospital. We must investigate potential solutions to separate vulnerable young people from adults with mental health conditions in the mental health short stay unit. 

We must also make sure that all young people who are admitted have a dedicated nurse-special with them at all times. Those who present but are not admitted must have clear guidance and be supported to connect with services outside the hospital. We need improved communication about the full suite of enhanced community‑based youth mental health services on the Northern Beaches, including a visual map.

We need ongoing monitoring, evaluation and communication about how community and hospital‑based services are meeting the youth mental health needs of the community. We also need a dedicated stakeholder briefing in 12 months. Many State and Federal service providers and not‑for‑profits at the round table did not know of each other, including those from our region. They said, "You do what? You do the same thing? My goodness, we need to talk." 

That was in front of me, Minister Jackson and other Federal MPs. 

It was also said in front of victims whose stories were just horrific, to say the least. 

To them, I say thank you. We must keep going and find a solution because it may affect everyone in our State, across all regions. 

We all wish that every young person is filled with a joyful sense of possibility and a zest for life. To see young people robbed of that, whether it is partly or wholly due to factors outside their control, is a tragedy in every single circumstance. 

We must do more.

I will stay on the case.''

On February 22 2024, in a Joint release from Michael Regan MP and Sophie Scamps MP, it was stated:

''We welcome the announcement from Minister Jackson today for increased child and youth mental health services on the Northern Beaches. This is a great demonstration of working together with the government to get a result for our community.

Too many young people on the Northern Beaches are grappling with serious mental health illness. They need more support, as do their families. This announcement today provides a suite of additional resources which will help young people and their families at times of  immense distress.

This includes the establishment of a drop-in Safe Haven service at the Brookvale Community Health Centre. This new service will provide a non-clinical environment for young people to go to in times of mental health crisis. Open seven days a week, with no appointment required, the Safe Haven will provide access to peer support, mental health professionals and referral pathways as needed.

The highly successful community PACER programme (Police, Ambulance & Clinician Early Response) will also receive an increase in funding. This will mean there are more dedicated psychiatric nurses who work with police in the community to assess young people in severe distress and help decide next steps for treatment.

For acute mental episodes, which require hospital admission, the Northern Beaches Hospital does have enhanced capacity to look after children and youth with mental health problems.

Under this announcement there will be an additional clinician employed at the hospital dedicated to supporting care for young people with co-morbid mental health and drug and alcohol issues.

The announcement today has come after genuine engagement by the Minister’s Office with local representatives, the Northern Beaches Hospital and local families. It is also based on thorough evidence-based assessment and advice from the Ministry of Health which focuses on using the available resources to best effect.

All new funds will be spent on publicly run services, with no additional funds going to the privately run Northern Beaches Hospital.

The announcement today includes a clear commitment to continue to work with local representatives, service providers and families on the Northern Beaches to discuss how youth mental health services can be further improved.''

On June 3, when the Minns Government announced an Audit into the Northern Beaches Hospital would now go ahead, Dr Sophie Scamps, Federal Member for Mackellar and Mr Michael Regan, Member for Wakehurst, stated they welcomed the recent announcement that the performance audit has commenced.

“We are proud that following our advocacy, this audit is now taking place,” the two MPs said.

“The Northern Beaches Hospital is staffed by skilled and committed doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, and this audit will assess whether these professionals are being supported structurally by Healthscope to be able to deliver the quality of care the Northern Beaches community deserves.”

“I would also like to thank the NSW Auditor General, Bola Oyetunjil, for his engagement with my office and other local stakeholders regarding the scope of the audit,” Dr Scamps said.

“I have been pushing for this audit since the Northern Beaches Hospital declined the $7.5million offered by the NSW government to provide a four-bed youth mental health unit.

That rang alarm bells for me. There needs to be far greater transparency regarding the hospital’s performance” she said.

“Securing an independent performance audit of Northern Beaches Hospital has been a key priority for me since being elected to state parliament last year. At every opportunity, I have made it clear – we need it, and we need it now. Our community needs more scrutiny and accountability around the quality of care being delivered at Northern Beaches Hospital. That is what this audit will deliver,” Mr Regan said.

The audit will provide a real opportunity to test whether this unique public private arrangement is delivering for the 350,000 people who rely on Northern Beaches Hospital as well as assessing whether it is delivering value for money for taxpayers.

The official statistics from the Bureau of Health Information released this week confirm that wait times in Emergency are getting longer. Only 49.2% of patients left emergency within four hours during the January to March quarter compared to the state average of 56%. This was a significant deterioration compared to a year ago.

“The Northern Beaches Hospital is the only major hospital in the state operating under this model where public hospital services are provided by a private operator, Healthscope,” Dr Scamps said.

“Constituents contact my office with stories of unacceptably long waits in emergency. Doctors and nurses report chronic understaffing,” she said.

“I am also concerned about the reports in the media about Healthscope’s $1.6bn debt burden and the financial pressures of the private health system more generally. I hope the Auditor- General can reassure the public that the service at Northern Beaches Hospital is not  being impacted by cost pressures.”

“An independent performance audit will be a very useful reference - providing more transparency and clarity for our community. Where the hospital is found to be performing well, we can build public confidence. Where there are issues, we can understand and work to  address them, ”Mr Regan said.

“‘Northern Beaches is a private hospital, from which the NSW Government purchases public services. But to all intents and purposes, is the local public hospital, and the northern beaches community has every right to expect the same quality of services as other  comparable public hospitals.”

“After all, that is what was promised with the opening of the Northern Beaches Hospital in 2018, when the two previous truly local public hospitals in Mona Vale and Manly were closed.”

A few weeks ago, Independent candidate for the 2024 Pittwater by-election Jacqui Scruby stated the September 18 released data on ambulance response times is alarming. Patients across the peninsula are waiting longer for ambulances, with people in Pittwater having to deal with increased response times across all priority categories.

The data shows the median time it took an ambulance to reach emergency cases is 18 minutes, up 1.8 minutes from the same quarter the previous year.

Just 35.5% of emergency cases (P1) waited less than 15 minutes for an ambulance to arrive, which is down 5.5 percentage points from last year.

Those which are Life Threatening Cases (P1A) shows a 9.8 minutes median time for it took an ambulance to reach the highest priority emergency cases, up 1.7 minutes.

Urgent Cases (P2) show 30.1 minutes as the median time it took an ambulance to reach urgent cases, up 4.4 minutes from the same quarter the previous year.

There were 385,345 ambulance responses in the April to June 2024 quarter, up 7.8% from the same period last year.

''This is a direct result of years of poor decisions and neglect from the NSW Liberal Party, including the privatisation of our public hospitals.'' Jacqui Scruby said

'' The Northern Beaches Hospital was meant to deliver improved health outcomes for our community, but instead, we have a system under immense pressure. The staff at Northern Beaches Hospital are amazing and working tirelessly, and while many have a great experience, too many haven’t. Two public hospitals were merged into one private facility, and the people of Pittwater have been left to deal with the consequences.

It took Michael Regan MP, a strong Independent next door in Wakehurst, to fight for our community and secure a performance audit of the Northern Beaches Hospital. This audit is now accepting submissions and now is the time to have your voice heard.'' 

Submissions to the NBH Audit close on COB Friday 15 November 2024. 

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