Tolkien II, a four-year study conducted by St
Vincent’s Hospital researchers, found the shortage of supervised
accommodation was aiding a vicious circle for sufferers, clogging hospital beds
and costing the government millions of dollars in treatment.
“This work is absolutely revolutionary, 1 don’t think
there is another document in the world like it,” said the director of St Vincent’s mental health services, Peter McGeorge.
“No one has gone into the details of what is required,
and it’s based on really solid research.”
He said that over recent weekends there had been “one
or two” beds available in the state, and that some mental health patients
had
been treated in acute care for up to three years.
“This is unacceptable. Without the kind of accommodation
we need, we will continue to have 30 to 50 per cent of acute beds blocked.
“The solution is read Tolkien ll, and to the
politicians – implement it.” The report follows Tolkien, published in
1991, which was written without any data on mental health. Tolkien II is based
on figures that for the first time reveal the current dire situation.
According to report author Professor Gavin Andrews, the
study has found a 30 per cent increase in budget could treat 60 per cent more
people and produce a 90 per cent increase in health gains.
He said 4600 new supervised homes were required around the
country at the cost of about $100 million a year for the next four to five
years. This would double the number of perma
nent and transitional care places from 51 per 100,000 people
to 95.
“The lack of supervised accommodation in the community
means that these patients are too often left alone to confront homelessness,
lack of medication and alcohol and drugs, often becoming a danger to themselves
and others,” Prof Andrews said.
“The present crisis in mental health in Australia stems
largely from people with psychosis, who genuinely do need to go to hospital,
not being able to access urgent care because acute hospital beds are clogged
treating
people with -chronic mental health conditions who have
nowhere to be discharged to.
“If we discharge them to live in the community, in
bedsits or if they are homeless, they don’t take their medication and are
vulnerable to drugs and alcohol. They then relapse quickly and the whole game
starts again,”
Federal Minister for Health and Ageing Nicola Roxon said:
“We are aware there are many challenges in the mental health sector and we
will be looking at these through our health reform agenda.”
Picture: Phil Rogers – St Vincent’s Hospital Aboriginal
healthcare professional Kaylene Simon, report author Professor Gavin Andrews
and director of St Vincent’s mental health
services Peter McGeorge.
[Further details of the report can be found at www.crufad.com/site2007/newsandevents/newsandevents.html
]