Parliamentary inquiry into mental health crisis: Need for clarity on delivering solutions

Speaking to those on the frontline of Queensland’s broken mental health system is absolutely heartbreaking. The parliamentary inquiry into the state’s crisis has weaved a road map for change but how the state will finance improvements must now be up for public debate, writes Jessica Marszalek.

When my colleagues and I spent several weeks last year speaking to those on the frontline of Queensland’s broken mental health system – from the overwhelmed doctors to those desperately seeking help – it was heartbreaking.

A woman with postnatal ­depression recounted a terrifying hospital stay after being separated from her baby and placed in a ward with mostly violent, high-risk men.

A mother celebrated when her drug-addicted son was ­finally jailed in the wildly ­mistaken belief he would finally get help.

Families tried their best to cope with the gut-wrenching consequences of suicide.

The MPs who worked on this inquiry have heard similar heartbreaking stories over weeks of eye-opening testimony painting the troublesome gaps in services that let down our most vulnerable.

They have done a valiant job of trying to weave a road map for change in what is an overwhelmingly complex and fractured system, plagued with workforce shortages, ­bureau­cratic funding nonsense and far too many people in need of ­services that are stretched, or simply do not exist.

Many of those problems that have been identified – a lack of inpatient beds, a lack of regional services, a lack of health workers, a lack of ­planning, a lack of community services to stop people’s problems becoming bigger than they might – were all identified in our coverage.

Recommendation one of this committee – that funding must increase – is finally a truth the Palaszczuk government must accept.

How it will finance improvements and how much more it will pour into the ­system must now be up for clear and public debate.

We can scarcely seek to pull the discussion of such ­important issues from the shadows, while not being clear and upfront about the solutions and how we fund them.

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