Mental health crisis for young Gippslanders

Additional mental health support for young Gippslanders has been called for by Nationals Member for Eastern Victoria Melina Bath to address what she described as an “alarming surge in mental health emergencies for young people and a lack of critical support”.

Ms Bath said the state government’s budget next month needed to immediately fund youth mental health inpatient services and more mental health workers.

She cited a case of a Moe mother whose son required urgent intervention and psychological care but but could not be accommodated because Gippsland has only two youth mental health beds, neither of which was available.

Ms Bath said the mother had to make a difficult choice between a youth bed in Melbourne or an adult bed locally.

She said a Royal Commission into the state’s mental health services three years ago found critical workforce shortages needed to be addressed and gave a blueprint to recover and rebuild the system.

Since then the state government’s “multiple (CIVID related) lockdowns, curfews, restrictions on leaving home, school closures, cancelled community sport and bans on personal care and socialising with friends had created a mental health pandemic, Ms Bath said.

“One of the tragic costs of the COVID pandemic is a mental health crisis that further stretched a system that was already beyond breaking point”.

“It’s appalling that young Gippslanders exhibiting signs of major distress or crisis cannot access locally the treatment, care and support they need”.

Ms Bath claimed the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that intentional self-harm was the leading cause of death mong Victorians aged 15 to 24 in 2020.