Albury Wodonga Headspace Day
Bill TILLEY (Benambra) (09:52): A couple of Saturdays ago I had the privilege to speak at Wodonga’s Headspace day. As most in this place know, Headspace is an early intervention mental health service for 12- to 25-year-olds. The theme for this meeting a couple of Saturdays ago was ‘Rubbishing unreal expectations’. It was an important day. Headspace is doing great work, but I do not think it is an unreal expectation to provide regional beds for adolescents suffering an acute mental health episode. The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System was quite clear on the need for treatment to be close to home. Regional and rural Victoria have 25 per cent of the population of Victoria, but we do not have an adolescent acute mental health inpatient service anywhere outside of Melbourne. The indictment on this is we need the beds now.