The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) and the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) said both parties must offer a range of mental health investments that respond to both non-acute and acute mental health needs.
RANZCP SA Branch Chair Dr Paul Furst said, “I am sure that everyone involved in mental health policy genuinely wants to solve the problems with the system. However, it’s incredibly frustrating when the parties don’t listen to the experts on how to fix it.”
“There is a common misconception that more community-based services for people experiencing mild-to moderate mental distress will reduce emergency presentations and demand for inpatient care when there is no local evidence that is the case.
“The Urgent Mental Heath Care Centre (UMHCC) is providing an important choice for mental health consumers who prefer not to attend EDs, but there has been no evaluation of the UMHCC and what impact it has had on the performance of the mental health system, so the claim that more of the same will reduce demand in our EDs is completely baseless. We need places like the UMHCC to offer consumers choice, but we must also have inpatient beds with a focus on true rehabilitation and recovery for those who need it.
“Our current mental health system is completely geared towards revolving door crisis responses, without offering people with serious and enduring mental illness a chance to recover and enjoy a better life.
“Labor has promised 98 specialised mental health beds. We need the Liberal party to start listening to the experts and those with a whole of system view on how mental health care is delivered and also announce more mental health beds.”
ACEM SA Faculty Chair Dr Michael Edmonds said, “South Australians experiencing serious mental health issues are getting stranded in noisy, overcrowded EDs for days on end waiting for an appropriate bed to become available. We simply do not have enough specialised mental health beds to service our community.”
“This isn’t normal. This isn’t safe – not for the person experiencing mental health issues, not for burnt-out staff and not for other patients who experience delays in their care. It can be fixed.
“SA’s emergency physicians don’t want bigger EDs. We need EDs that function, and that means increasing inpatient and mental health bed capacity so we can move people in serious distress into a place that can meet their needs – freeing up our EDs to provide care to more people in need of acute care.”
“While the Liberal announcements for additional hospital beds are welcomed, they are not enough to address the needs of the South Australian community, nor to fix ramping.
“We don’t want to hear blame for why the system is in the deplorable state that it is – the past is in the past. Now is the time to focus on the future and on solutions in order to ensure every South Australian recieves the care they need, when they need it.
“We urge voters to listen to the health experts and what we believe our broken system so desperately needs. South Australia, this is your health system – and you deserve better.”
