Fifteen new mental health clinics and a new Mental Health Taskforce are to be to set up to assist Victoria deal with the breakout of the coronavirus that is affecting its community.
Announced by the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison the assistance will see the establishment of the clinics which will see nine pop up in Greater Melbourne and six in regional Victoria.
In a statement, Mr Morrison said the clinics would be located at existing GP clinics, headspace centres or other community sites where people usually accessed general health care.
“The clinics will support GPs by providing access to multidisciplinary teams of mental health workers, including psychologists, mental health nurses, social workers, and alcohol and drug workers,” Mr Morrison said.
“The clinics will provide on-site mental health support, but may also arrange referrals to more intensive mental health care or social supports if needed,” he said.
“This could include referral into emergency care or into an in-patient facility in a private hospital.”
Mr Morrison said there had been a concerning rise in self-harm injuries presenting to hospital, and a spike in the use of services like Beyond Blue, Lifeline and Kids Helpline.
“Data shows there has been a 33 per cent rise in children and young people in Victoria presenting to hospital with self-harm injuries over the past six weeks, compared to a year earlier,” he said.
“In the past 4 weeks, Victorian use was 90 per cent higher than the rest of the country for Beyond Blue, 22 per cent higher for Lifeline and five per cent higher for Kids Helpline.”
He said Victorian demand for Medicare Benefit Schedule mental health services was also up six per cent on this time last year.
Mr Morrison said the new Victorian Mental Health Taskforce would be established to ensure the latest initiatives were implemented quickly.
