Future Townsville: Addressing the city’s mental health challenges

The Future Townsville event will look at how the city can build on it’s reputation as a mentally healthy city. Follow the live blog.

The Future Townsville event focused on mental health is on today.

Townsville is Australia’s first mentally healthy city – but there is still work to do.

For the past two weeks, the Townsville Bulletin along with its partners the Townsville Hospital and Health Service, Mater Hospital, Townsville TAFE and Cowboys House, has been exploring mental health, Indigenous health and aged care.

Today, the campaign comes to a head with the Future Townsville event at The Ville.

Speakers at the event will explore how the key pillars of this advocacy campaign will help build on the city’s reputation and address issues it is facing.

Follow for live updates form the event.

13:06 Outskirts of Townsville the suburbs of tomorrow

Medium density, suburban developments on the outside of Townsville would ‘look funny’ but would be forward thinking and appropriate, according to Mr Kuestenmacher.

“We could repeat Melbourne’s mistake of pretending not to grow,” Mr Kuestenmacher.

“You could start building right now - I don’t accept the narrative that politicans are short-sighted and are only worried about the next election.

“We are capable of thinking decades ahead, it’s just a matter of pushing aside the narrative so that we are doing that.

“Townsville’s growth is all but guaranteed, the ageing issue we are facing here, that is very predictable, that is the one upside. The one key that we must take care of is affordable housing. If you are building a big, fat hospital, which is very much needed, you need a bucketload of low-income and medium-income workers. Where do you then house them?”

12:57 ‘’1 in 4’ young women have chronic mental health conditions

One in four young women in Townsville are living with a chronic mental health conditions, a ‘ludicrous’ statistic, Mr Kuestenmacher said.

“We have incredibly high suicide rates amongst men in particular, which suggests we have an under-reporting of mental health.

“It really shows the importance of doubling down on mental health services. That is a challenge. This poor mental health is a global phenomenon.

“Young people these days have god-awful mental health. It’s up for speculation, but I would say this is the first cohort of people ever to grow up on mobile information technology.”

12:55 ‘Sponge’ effect to pose further challenges

Townsville’s population will continue to grow ‘all over the shop’, impacting the surrounding rural and regional towns.

“Regional towns are agricultural towns, you’re only there for work, and they will shrink and shrink and shrink,” Mr Kuestenmacher said.

“It’s Townsville that sucks up the lifeblood of those towns as people move here to make use of medical services. People are going to move here at scale, and that means more demand for difficult to staff jobs like aged care and health services.”

12:50 ‘Taken for granted’ jobs to vanish

Basic jobs, like repair, maintenance and cleaning are also in dire straights, as well as bus drivers thanks to workers aging out of their working years.

“Just to heap the good news on you here,” Mr Kuestenmacher said.

“Theoretically, you can always attract new workers, but quite a few of these jobs will be listed as low income jobs, in order to attract low income workers, you need affordable housing.

“Housing throws a spanner in the works of everything we look at.

“As a local government area, you’re doing the right things, but where do the workers come from? Can you develop the houses at scale?”

12:45 ‘Retirement cliff’ looming for Townsville workforce

Mr Kuestenmacher has described a looming situation, where aged care workers are both in higher demand over the next decade, but are also aging out of their working years and headed for retirement.

Similarly, a third of current hospital orderlies and a ‘big chunk’ of the nursing workforce are set to be lost.

“Maybe you can convince them, be really nice and convince them to stay in the workforce and delay their retirement, but how far will that get you? The demand for jobs in this sector is crazy,” Mr Kuestenmacher said.

“We already have a shortage of vocational teachers. These kinds of teaching jobs need to be paid better. One of the dumbest things we’ve done in the education sector ever is to charge for a TAFE degree - how stupid.”

12:41 Skills shortage puts squeeze on aged care

”No matter what industry you’re in, no matter what your business is, your biggest worry in the next decade is the skills shortager; how do you staff your organisation?”

Mr Kuestenmacher has outlined a lot of the key challenges that will put a squeeze on industries in Townsville over the next decade and further, with a looming skills shortage set to make things more difficult across the nation.

“It’s not even up for debate that the 85 and older cohort is going to double in the next ten years,” Mr Kuestenmacher said.

“This is going to intensify and intensify the aging of this state, and this town as well - we need to amp up the aged care workforce, we need to bring them in from overseas and in house. There’s no scenario that the current aged care system will work in 12 years.

“I can guarantee that we’ll need to compeltely re-think the whole aged care sector.”

12:35 Simon Kuestenmacher takes the stage

Keynote speaker and demographer Simon Kuestenmacher has opened his address, delving into the information and data as it stands and how it impacts Townsville’s population.

“Townsville is a bit younger on average than the whole state, that’s largely due to the defence force, it’s a relatively young profession,” Mr Kuestenmacher said.

“You can’t tap into the young people in the Townsville population for the healthcare workforce, because they’re very much earmarked for the defence sector.”

The Demography Group co-founder has said that there’ll be plenty of new arrivals in Townsville over the next decade

“We know how many of you will have babies in the next ten years, we know how many of you won’t make it to next year,” Mr Kuestenmacher.
“There’s so many millenials, that maternity wards will still be outrageously busy, and midwives will not see falling work-rates.

12:34 Public, private sector must go hand in hand

Health Minister Fentiman has praised Townsville’s local hospitals, Townsville University Hospital and the Mater Private Hospital for their willingness to work together in delivering healthcare results.

“Sometimes making sure we’re getting the best results means utilising capacity in the private healthcare sector,” Ms Fentiman said.

“A strong private healthcare sector is vital to our success.”

12:31 GP suicide rate spotlighted

A question for the health minister from local doctor Sarah Kleinmann about the high rates of suicide rural and regional doctors face, not just with their patients, but also for themselves, with GPs with a shockingly high incidence of suicide.

“The rural doctors association have just in the last few weeks launched a new program to support our rural and regional GPs,” Ms Fentiman said.

“To make sure that our rural and regional GPs are looking after themselves.

“When you’re the only specialist in a small town, it is really, really had work, and without people to debrief or talk to, it’s very difficult.”

12:29 Tyranny of distance a focus for health minister

”The work that is happening here in Townsville in terms of the infrastructure spend will set us up for success in the decades to come,” Ms Fentiman said.

Ms Fentiman has indicated there’ll be more money flowing into the region in the lead-up to the election, with the three current state MPs sitting on marginally held seats that are vital to a Labour re-election effort.

“Something I’m really passionate about is making sure we can deliver those services close to home. When you’re unwell or sick, the last thing you want to do is travel to Brisbane away from your family,” Ms Fentiman said.

“I want to make sure that everyone has access to that specialist care in their own community.”

12:13 Health Minister Fentiman on the heels of major announcement

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman is in Townsville on the back of a major announcement, speaking about the need for more of a focus on mental health as Future Townsville gets underway.

“Townsville, like the rest of the country, and really we see this trend globally, is seeing more and more demand for mental health services,” Ms Fentiman said.

“Mental health is only now just emerging from the stigma of taboo and secrecy, where it has been for decades.
“We’re now determined to catch up and ensure their is equitable access right across the state.

“Like the global system, we are facing a shortage of trained health and healthcare professionals, and no where is this more pronounced than our regional communities.”

12:10 Major focus areas revealed by last year’s campaign

The Townsville Bulletin’s general manager Suzanne Wilson has taken the stage, welcoming guest speaker Shannon Fentiman as well as demographer and keynote speacher Simon Kuestenmacher.

“Future Townsville is one of the Tonwsville bulletin’s key advocacy intiatives. The Bulletin has become one of the key mastheads in Townsville because this masthead has advocated for our community for over 100 years,” Ms Wilson said.

“Three key areas stuck out to us after last year’s event as areas to focus on when advocating in our city. That’s why we are discussing mental health, aged care and indigenous health today.”

Ms Wilson quoted from Mr Keustenmacher, who described young mental health as a ‘catastrophe’ in need of action.

12:00 And we’re off!

Sky News’ Jaynie Seal is kicking things off for us this morning, amidst a packed conference hall full of guests from the health industry, the state government and the broader Townsville community.

“So much to get through, it’s going to be jam-packed and very interesting as well,” Ms Seal said.

“A key part of the Townsville Bulletin’s role in the community is to inform people to help them create a better city.

“This remarkable legacy has led us to continue our Future Townsville campaign.”

Suzanne Wilson, the Townsville Bulletin’s general manager, will lead off with an opening address, before the Queensland Government Minister for Health, Mental Health, Ambulance Services and Women’s Health Shannon Fentiman delivers her own address.

Originally published as Future Townsville: Addressing the city’s mental health challenges