Jessica Marszalek: Queensland Government must better serve the mental health crisis

If we can have a minister for trains, how can we not have a minister dedicated to one of our most pressing social issues, asks Jessica Marszalek.

When LNP MP James Lister rose in the parliament Thursday to advise he would be taking a two-month sabbatical to work on his mental health, he was lauded by colleagues on both sides.

“I know that honourable members and my community would forgive me for not being specific about my situation, but I did not want to play it that way,” he said.

“Elizabeth Gaskell said that ‘an evil, once being recognised, is halfway on towards its remedy’.

Southern Downs MP James Lister announcing to the parliament he was taking mental health leave. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

“Publicly acknowledging the truth, and accepting treatment and help, will help me to be the best dad and husband that I can be; it will help me to be the best representative of Southern Downs that I can be; and it will set the right example because, as a military and now community leader, I have always advocated that we should be open about mental health issues and that we should not be afraid to seek support and help.”

The former soldier was absolutely right that naming issues only pulls them from the shadows, encouraging more people to discuss them, seek help and debate the broader solutions.

Which is perhaps why it’s surprising Queensland does not have a stand-alone minister responsible for mental health.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath currently holds responsibility within her vast portfolio. But with health demand shaping as a major issue for this third-term government, and Ms D’Ath also responsible for the ongoing and time-consuming COVID health response, perhaps a minister for mental health is a good idea.

Why not at least an assistant minister for mental health? We have one for trains after all.

Nationally, David Coleman is the assistant minister to the prime minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention.

Victoria, NSW, Tasmania and the ACT have separate ministers for mental health.

In SA and WA, it’s at least named in the health minister’s title.

Just Queensland and the NT don’t have a separate or named mental health minister. But surely one of the most salient lessons of the pandemic has been how fragile our mental health can be.

COVID-19 has taught up how previous our mental health is. Picture: Supplied

How stress, job loss and instability, family responsibility, family violence and loneliness can have major repercussions for individuals and society as a whole.

That’s leaving aside those battling other serious demons. The latest snapshot of child deaths by the Queensland Family and Child Commission showed suicide was again the leading cause of death among teens aged 15-17.

The suicide rate in the general population increased by 13 per cent from 2009 to 2018, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Wellbeing. The rate is higher in men.

But Queensland hasn’t had a dedicated mental health minister since 2011 during the Bligh government, when Curtis Pitt served as the state’s first (and only) mental health minister, also handling disabilities and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partnerships in his responsibilities.

Speaker Curtis Pitt, who was the Mental Health Minister in the Bligh Government. Picture: Stewart McLean

While the pressure on the health system as a whole intensifies – influenced by the ageing community, a lack of access to GPs (a federal issue) and too many mental health patients who end up at hospitals instead of in successful treatment – surely good ideas would come from splitting off the complexities of mental health from the vast responsibilities of the health portfolio.

Ideas like the Queensland Mental Health Commission, whose job it is to work on whole-of-system reform to make sure mental health, alcohol, drug and suicide prevention systems are working and is a legacy of Mr Pitt.

This past week we’ve heard the complaints of paramedics and doctors grow louder around what is shaping as a ramping crisis across the state’s busiest hospitals. An emergency meeting was convened in the wake of media reporting around the thousands of hours ambulances were spending ramped outside emergency departments.

Health experts basically told Ms D’Ath some of the excuses she was using just didn’t cut it – like that too many people were blocking up EDs with complaints not serious enough for a hospital trip.

There was agreement that nurses would take care of patients turning up to EDs before they can be seen, instead of paramedics.

Ambulance ramping has been a big problem in recent week. Picture: David Clark

But the union warned solutions needed to be closely watched or the problems would only come back to bite.

Meanwhile, the pandemic is still with us, as we saw when authorities were surprised by Friday’s case.

And the complex and at-times bumpy vaccination rollout is going to take a significant part of 2021.

With so much to handle, it’s easy to worry that important mental health issues might not get the full attention they deserve.

And hard to understand why Queensland doesn’t have a separate minister for mental health.