Ms CARTER - 2000-10-10
One of the most important areas of health that is recognised this week is the national celebration of Mental Health Week. This morning I attended a breakfast at the Centra celebrating Mental Health Day featuring a lecture by Dr Christine Murphy, general manager of EAS, entitled From the Closet to the Board Room, Mental Health in the Work Place.
Given the relevance of Mental Health Week, can the minister outline what initiatives are taking place in the Territory to coincide with this important week?
ANSWER
Indeed a very important question, Mr Speaker, and I thank the member for her question because I know she has an interest in this very important area.
Today is World Mental Health Day. It is an important day and it is being celebrated not just around the world but particularly here in the Northern Territory. I was pleased to attend the finishing line of the Wheel-a-thon at Darwin High on Sunday where the non-government sector had put on a fund raiser and an awareness day for mental health. I was very pleased to see some of my parliamentary colleagues there; the member for Blain, the member for Sanderson and the member for Millner were there. It was a pity that some of those from the other side of the parliament were not there, but perhaps it is an indicator of their support for this worthy initiative. In fact, statistics show something like 2.4m Australians have suffered a mental health episode in the last 12 months. So it is a significant issue for the community and it is an issue that still carries some stigma about it. There are a variety of celebrations up and down the track this week including Alice Springs, Katherine and Palmerston.
While I am on my feet I would also like to particularly applaud representatives of the Central Australia Remote Mental Health team who have recently returned from Adelaide having received a major national award. That award was for their program ‘Leave No Footprints’. It was given as part of the mental health conference of Australia and New Zealand, and it is given by a team which is responsible for many hundreds of thousands of square kilometres in the centre of Australia where they provide services to people in remote settings in a particularly difficult area.
The team facilitates and encourages Aboriginal people to access a range of Aboriginal healing methodologies and traditional western-style services in concert with Aboriginal services, Aboriginal health workers and Aboriginal healers, Ngangkaris, who go into the bush and provide services for remote people. It is a worthy accolade for the Northern Territory to receive such an award and I thank those people in my department who have put such work into place. I encourage everybody in the parliament to pay some attention to this very worthy week.
Given the relevance of Mental Health Week, can the minister outline what initiatives are taking place in the Territory to coincide with this important week?
ANSWER
Indeed a very important question, Mr Speaker, and I thank the member for her question because I know she has an interest in this very important area.
Today is World Mental Health Day. It is an important day and it is being celebrated not just around the world but particularly here in the Northern Territory. I was pleased to attend the finishing line of the Wheel-a-thon at Darwin High on Sunday where the non-government sector had put on a fund raiser and an awareness day for mental health. I was very pleased to see some of my parliamentary colleagues there; the member for Blain, the member for Sanderson and the member for Millner were there. It was a pity that some of those from the other side of the parliament were not there, but perhaps it is an indicator of their support for this worthy initiative. In fact, statistics show something like 2.4m Australians have suffered a mental health episode in the last 12 months. So it is a significant issue for the community and it is an issue that still carries some stigma about it. There are a variety of celebrations up and down the track this week including Alice Springs, Katherine and Palmerston.
While I am on my feet I would also like to particularly applaud representatives of the Central Australia Remote Mental Health team who have recently returned from Adelaide having received a major national award. That award was for their program ‘Leave No Footprints’. It was given as part of the mental health conference of Australia and New Zealand, and it is given by a team which is responsible for many hundreds of thousands of square kilometres in the centre of Australia where they provide services to people in remote settings in a particularly difficult area.
The team facilitates and encourages Aboriginal people to access a range of Aboriginal healing methodologies and traditional western-style services in concert with Aboriginal services, Aboriginal health workers and Aboriginal healers, Ngangkaris, who go into the bush and provide services for remote people. It is a worthy accolade for the Northern Territory to receive such an award and I thank those people in my department who have put such work into place. I encourage everybody in the parliament to pay some attention to this very worthy week.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016