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.
Opinion
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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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