A review of children’s mental health services on South Australia’s remote Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands has found the majority of children and young people who need support are likely to slip through the cracks under current arrangements, and has called for staff numbers to double urgently.
Key points:
- A move to telehealth and fly-in fly-out mental health services for the APY Lands was criticised
- The Health Minister has agreed to a recommendation to double staff
- Two doctors have quit over what they say is a lack of a leadership in the sector
South Australia’s Chief Psychiatrist, John Brayley, undertook the review after the APY Lands was left without on-country staff earlier this year, with SA Health instead implementing telehealth and fly-in fly-out services.
“Exposure to childhood sexual abuse, physical violence, substance abuse and unresolved mental illness and trauma arising from both colonisation and the Stolen Generations continue to significantly impact the mental health of young people on the Lands,” the report found.
Rather than have cases reported to them, the report found workers on the APY Lands needed to build trust with communities and proactively travel to family homes to identify children in need.
It found there were difficulties recruiting and retaining staff, at least partially due to an insecure funding model that meant permanent positions were not offered.
Dr Brayley recommended staff numbers double from three to six locally based staff return as soon as possible, and more secure funding be put in place.
Health Minister Stephen Wade said he welcomed the report’s recommendations.
“We will be immediately actioning the recommendation to double the workforce for the service from three staff to six,” he said.
“As recommended, the workforce expansion is supported with a four-year funding commitment [which] will ensure the service can provide the ongoing high levels of need for child and adolescent mental health services on the APY Lands, and help deliver improved outcomes for young people and families.”
Doctors quit claiming poor leadership
The report comes as two senior children’s mental health workers quit the public system, blaming poor leadership.
Child psychiatrist Jon Jureidini and psychotherapist Patricia O’Rourke gave evidence to a parliamentary committee today.
Dr Jureidini said the removal of the two APY Lands-based workers resulted in the loss of a very good service.
“The level of expertise that’s been developed by these workers is unparalleled in Australia … in either child or adult mental health,” he said.
“And yet CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) and the Women’s and Children’s Hospital have seen fit to effectively shut down the service and members of the community are deeply distressed by that.”
Dr Jureidini and Dr O’Rourke told the committee one of their significant motivations to quit their work in the CAMHS at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital was the closure of a unit that helped reunite neglected children with their parents.
The service has since been outsourced to a not-for-profit organisation.
“We no longer have a comparable service for these families,” Dr O’Rourke told the committee.
Both clinicians said they had lost faith in the management at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
“[There is] poor leadership and a lack of respect for clinical experience and judgement. Being treated in a demeaning manner by members of CAMHS and hospital executive,” Dr Jureidini said.
“It was a deeply unpleasant experience that we went through and we didn’t resign lightly because both of us had an enduring commitment to that institution.”
