Staff Appointments to Address Youth Mental Health Resources Gap

In the 2015-16 Budget, the Hodgman Liberal Government committed $3.2 million over four years for Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) to address an historical under-resourcing of this important area.

I am pleased today, on the 100th anniversary of Clare House, to confirm that several vacancies are now filled, including recent recruitment of a new senior occupational therapist, social worker, allied health worker and psychologist.

Several new positions have also been funded and created, with a Senior Clinical Psychologist position to be advertised this weekend and a Clinical Lead for the service to be advertised in coming weeks.

Further work is underway to increase the capacity of the service to support infants, children, young people with severe and complex mental health problems and their families. This will include dedicated staffing for this critical area.

The White Paper on Safe and Sustainable Clinical Services includes a significant increase in CAMHS services at the Launceston General Hospital, increasing from a level three to a level five service to provide new inpatient services for children and adolescents across the North and North-West.

We are also establishing an adolescent mental health unit, as part of the redevelopment of the RHH. This will allow care to be provided to adolescents in an appropriate environment.

Since being elected in March last year we have demonstrated our commitment to maintaining fiscal discipline so we can address long-term service gaps in essential services like this one, knowingly under resourced by the previous Labor Green government for years.
Michael Ferguson, Minister for Health