Crisis clinics for teen mental health in coronavirus pandemic

Mental health pop-up clinics will be rolled out across Sydney as a growing number of students face the prospect of ending up in hospital emergency departments.

Covid-19 testing at Sydney International Airport on Sunday. Picture: Gaye Gerard

A chain of emergency mental health pop-up clinics will be rolled out across Greater Sydney by the federal government as a growing number of Year 11 and 12 students face the prospect of ending up in hospital emergency departments because of the latest Covid ­lockdown.

The surge in support for teenagers comes as mental health ­experts say the NSW government is not doing enough to stand up new mental health services, ­despite evidence of the severe impact on younger generations and a more than 47 per cent increase in hospital presentations.

The Australian understands that 10 mental health clinics, known as Head to Health units, will be rolled out this week in Lakemba, Hurstville, Tuggerah, Kingswood, Thornleigh, Shellharbour, Blacktown, Parramatta, Bankstown and Liverpool to support those living in areas most ­affected by the NSW lockdown.

The rollout is based on similar clinics used in Victoria at the height of the second wave of the pandemic that hit the state in July last year.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said current restrictions across the country were “taking a toll on the mental health and wellbeing of Australians”.

“The current lockdown is also having a huge impact on students preparing for their HSC,” he said.

“The clinics will provide vital access for Year 11 and 12 students who are facing their final years of schooling and may need ­additional mental health support.”

Police patrol around the near-deserted Sydney Opera House on Sunday. Picture: David Swift

The mental health measures come as Queensland races to boost lagging vaccination rates as it teeters on the edge of another lockdown, with Annastacia Palas­zczuk saying Covid would spread through the state “sometime in the near future”.

Ms Palaszczuk encouraged Queens­­landers to get jabbed amid concerns over a group exposed to the Delta strain at a nail salon in Logan, with the mother of an infected four-year-old revealed to have tested positive on Sunday.

“It is imperative you get vaccinated because this virus will pop up in the near future,” she said. “Every single person that gets vaccinated is protecting us from having a huge outbreak.”

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the state planned to phase out the requirement for Australians returning from overseas to spend two weeks in hotel quarantine once vaccination rates hit 80 per cent.

She lashed out at premiers who had signalled they could refuse to open up their borders once the nation hit a vaccination rate of 80 per cent. “Once we hit 80 per cent double dose, all internal borders in Australia should not exist and by that stage NSW would welcome home thousands of ­Australians every week,” she said.

“NSW has had to confront some issues, because a major outbreak happened here first but other states will have to go through this.”

Victorian Premier Daniel ­Andrews also backed in Scott Morrison’s goal of having state and international borders reopened in time for Christmas, saying “we should all work as hard as we can to make that real”.

A quiet Father’s Day at Maroubra Beach in eastern Sydney on Sunday. Picture: Nicholas Eagar

He cautioned that maintaining low case numbers was crucial, with only 37.2 per cent of Victorians having received a double jab. “Even though we are not chasing zero any more, we are chasing the lowest number of new cases every day,” Mr Andrews said.

“That’s an important part on the way to a Christmas where hopefully Australia has opened up and we have got 80 per cent-plus of our community through the vaccination program.”

But WA Premier Mark McGowan said he had not agreed to a Christmas reopening timeline. He warned it was “utter madness”, people would die and that the state would aim for a vaccination rate of between 80 and 90 per cent before it opened up. “I don’t understand why the Liberal Party keeps wanting to bring down the border with infected states like NSW before we’re ready,” he said. “What that will mean is the virus is imported. People will die.

“I don’t want us to end up like NSW. We’re going to fight like hell to stop that from occurring.”

The new mental health clinics in Greater Sydney, driven through the commonwealth’s primary healthcare networks, will use psychologists, mental health nurses, mental health occupational therapists, social workers and peer workers.

The clinics use both video and phone-supported services as well as face-to-face crisis support in localised areas worst hit by the lockdowns.

Teens and young people have been hit hardest by the mental health toll of Covid-19; emergency department presentations in NSW for self-harm or suicidal ideation among 12 to 17-year-olds was 49 per cent higher in 2021 over 2019.

While hospital admissions for acute mental health conditions increased by 2 per cent for the general population, for children and young people, admissions have spiked by 43 per cent. The pandemic has also hit young people hard in Victoria, with a 57 per cent increase in hospital admissions for mental health emergencies in young people in the past year.

Ian Hickie, health and policy co-director at the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre, welcomed the federal intervention. He said there had been a 47 per cent increase in the number of youth presenting to emergency departments of hospital since 2019, and that was before the latest lockdown.

He said the numbers would be dramatically higher since the latest lockdown.

Additional Reporting: Rachel Baxendale, Ellie Dudley, Lydia Lynch, Greg Brown