Labor pledges new mental health units alongside SA emergency depts
SA’s peak medical body says building new “SA-first” mental health units at three of the state’s busiest hospitals is a good move, but the government must work harder to keep patients out of the system.
The Labor government has committed to building three dedicated Mental Health Assessment Units next to the Royal Adelaide, Lyell McEwin and Noarlunga hospital emergency departments if it wins the state election.
The first $32 million unit would be built at the Royal Adelaide, and according to Health Minister Chris Picton and Premier Peter Malinauskas, would help people experiencing a mental health, drug or alcohol crisis.
According to the state government, the units would provide better care, reduce disruption and free up emergency departments.
While the news was welcomed by the Australian Medical Association SA President, Associate Professor Dr Peter Subramaniam, he called for more investment in preventative care.
“It’s a positive step because it’s going to divert patients away from our overcrowded EDs and into a more appropriate facility to manage them, in particular, the drug and alcohol crises, which are a significant part of the presentations,” he said.
“Investment in crisis care at hospital doors is welcome, but it’s in the community that we need to stop people needing to get there in the first place.
“Let’s ensure that people don’t need these mental health beds. So, invest in the preventative pathways, invest in the community care, give GPs the capacity to manage these crises in the community.”
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Subramaniam said the proof of the pudding would be the delivery of these units if the Labor government was re-elected after the March state election.
“We look forward to clarification about how these services are going to be funded and how they’re going to be staffed,” he said.
One person with extensive experience navigating the mental health system, who InDaily has chosen not to name, said that “as a parent who has supported adult children with serious mental health illnesses, including schizophrenia, I am very happy to hear this news”.
“We have experienced the Emergency Departments of both the old and new RAH, and they are no place for someone who is psychotic or in serious mental crisis,” she said.
“They are overstimulating. The staff, who are run off their feet already, are often not trained to care for the mentally ill. People can wait many, many hours to be assessed by someone with psychiatric expertise. These conditions are detrimental to their health.
“It is an overdue but very positive development.”
Health Minister Chris Picton said the most common reason people present to emergency departments for mental health care was due to drug and alcohol use.
“We want to better help those people – and make emergency departments less disruptive for others – which is why we are committing to build these specialist units next to three of our EDs,” he said.
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The units would be developed in collaboration with emergency department and mental health clinicians, as well as the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and unions.
“We know that loud and busy emergency departments are not the best place for people dealing with a serious mental health crisis or drug and alcohol issues,” Malinauskas said.
“That’s why we are taking to the election our plan to build the first-ever specialised Mental Health Assessment Units for South Australia alongside three of our busiest emergency departments.”
It comes as the Labor government today opens a 24-bed mental health rehabilitation unit at Modbury Hospital as part of a $130 million upgrade of the hospital.
Two other mental health rehabilitation units have also been opened at Queen Elizabeth and Noarlunga hospitals.
The government said it had delivered more than 130 extra mental health beds and recruited 100 new mental health and learning support specialists to work in public schools.
Dr Dan Haustead, who is SA branch chair of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine, threw his support behind the plan, “people experiencing a mental health, drug or alcohol crisis deserve care in a safe, calm environment that is appropriate to their needs”.
“Emergency doctors want every patient who seeks emergency care to be treated with dignity and support, and purpose-built mental health assessment units alongside emergency departments have the potential to improve both patient experience and safety,” he said.
Today’s announcement follows Labour’s announcement yesterday that, if re-elected, it would turn the former Women’s and Children’s Hospital in North Adelaide into a dedicated health and aged care precinct.
The SA Liberals previously announced that they would keep the site as a health precinct if elected, which they said would keep at least 300 beds in the health system.
Opposition Leader Ashton Hurn said that “there’s no doubt in my mind that mental health is a really big challenge that’s facing the health system”, but questioned details about the policy.
“First of all, the government were announcing three, but now it comes to mind that actually, over the next four years, they’re proposing to only build one of the three and the rest are off in the Never-Never,” she said.
She said the SA Liberals would be announcing their own policies on mental health soon.
“I think that it is an issue plaguing our health system under this government,” she said.
