Media release – Health and Community Services Union, 12 November 2021
State’s Mental Health Helpline goes dark as workers forced to act
All untriaged mental health referrals will be forwarded to the office of the Director of Services for Statewide Mental Health Services from 9am today, with the state’s Mental Health Helpline totally unavailable from 1pm, as community mental health workers are left with no choice but to take action to protect their own wellbeing after weeks of raising grave concerns about staffing.
The Helpline, which is the point of contact for general practitioners and other agencies to make referrals to Mental Health Services, has been left in dysfunction because of under-resourcing.
Referrals should be triaged and referred to the appropriate service within public health, to a private provider, or to NGOs or other support services, but under-staffing has resulted in untriaged referrals being sent directly to overstretched community mental health clinicians who can barely meet the actual demand in their own areas as it is.
The situation has seen individual workers forced into a position where they must wear the risk of choosing between providing support to their own high-risk patients and assessing patients of unknown complexity, risk and need.
“Community mental health workers have had to advise executive management that they cannot in good conscience continue to wear the risk of dealing with, essentially, two very serious areas of mental health services,” said HACSU Assistant Secretary Lucas Digney.
“Refusing untriaged referrals will allow these mental health workers to continue to work with patients with severe, complex and acute mental health concerns, just like they are employed to do.”
It is unclear at this stage whether the Helpline will be able to operate on the weekend.
Quotes attributable to HACSU Assistant State Secretary Lucas Digney
“This action is not taken lightly. The risk to patients, and to workers, is too great for there not to be something measurable done – and done now.”
“It is unacceptable that the Department has let it come to this. Tasmanians deserve better, especially those who are trying to get help for mental health issues.”
“It should not be left to health workers to tell the community about what’s actually happening to their health services; the Department can and should do better in advising the community about the deficiencies and changes to services.”
