Health and Community Services Union
| Big Wins for Bendigo and Austin in Mental Health Budget |
| 10 May 2010 |
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The 2010-11 State Budget released on May 5, saw two big wins for HACSU members. The budget contained $56 million to fund 42 new acute beds for Bendigo’s Mental Health Service. This is a significant investment by the government and follows years of lobbying and activism by the Union Office and HACSU delegates and members. The Government, through the budget, also committed $14.2 million to build a 22 bed community care unit at the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital to be operated by Austin Health. Again, this is a development that members have been campaigning for over several years. All metropolitan health services now have a CCU. These two announcements have been key items in HACSU budget submissions. Neither of these announcements would have happened without the hard work and ongoing campaigning by HACSU members. These are two major developments that will make considerable improvements to the lives of people experiencing a mental illness and may not have happened if it wasn’t for HACSU members. Unfortunately workforce strategy did not attract extra funding which is disappointing given the Victorian Government has made it clear in the past that it is committed to supporting its workforce strategy. In particular there was no extra money committed to the expansion and development of the Mental Health Major in Universities. HACSU will be pressing this issue in the lead up to the November State Election. The budget contains a range of other measures for mental health, primarily focusing on youth and early intervention. These announcements included $3.5 million to extend existing Intensive Mobile Youth Outreach Support teams which HACSU has also been advocating for. Other announcements in the budget include:
Community Aged Mental Health received $4.9 million over four years for better treatment and care for older people with severe mental illness. This is another area that HACSU has actively lobbied government and is a welcome development although the details of this funding are still ambiguous. HACSU will be seeking more detailed briefings about each budget item and will report those details in future communications. |