Northern Territory’s first youth mental health inpatient program launched in Darwin

THE Territory’s first specialist child and adolescent mental health facility is open for business

13/7/05.. Generic photo for Depression , mentaly ill , Mental health Picture: SIMON DEAN Picture: Dean Simon

THE Territory’s first specialist child and adolescent mental health facility is open for business.

The residential facility at Royal Darwin Hospital – launched on Monday – cost the Government $900,000 and will provide five beds for children aged between 12 and 18.

A day program will begin taking patients in a few months.

Top End Mental Health general manager Emma Reid said there were about 50 young people in the Top End who needed such a program.

She said early intervention in mental health issues could have a profound impact on a young person’s life.

“A couple of weeks for a young person, we might actually be able to change their life, because you’re able to put in place some really useful life plans,” she said.

The opening of the facility coincided with the release of a report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare that shows mental health-related occasions of care in NT public hospital emergency departments more than doubled in the three years to 2012-13.

The report shows there were 6737 mental heath-related occasions of service provided in Territory emergency departments in 2012-13, up from 3170 in 2009-10.

Spending on psychiatric units in the Territory’s two public hospitals increased $4 million in the three years to 2012-13, when more than $18 million was spent. Spending on community mental health care rose $750,000 to $2.2 million.

With the health budget expected to take a heavy hit from 2017-18 when changes to public hospital funding arrangements between the federal government and states and territories come into effect, it’s unclear whether spending increases will be maintained.

Health Minister John Elferink said he was optimistic the Federal Government under Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull would reverse some of those cuts, which he estimated to be worth about $95 million over a number of years. But he warned pressure would continue to mount on the health system.

“The truth is there are demands right across the health spectrum and those demands are increasing over time,” he said.

“Governments going forward are really going to struggle on this point, because the health demands and expectations on the health dollar will increase over time, however the health dollar may not be able to reach the public expectation.”

Across Australia more than $8 billion was spent on mental health services in 2013-14, equivalent to $344 per capita.