Parliamentary question without notice | Intensive Home Based Support Service
15/10/2015
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: I seek leave to make a brief explanation prior to asking the minister, representing the Minister for Mental Health, questions surrounding the defunding of the Intensive Home Based Support Service.
Leave granted.
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: People who have experienced or are experiencing mental illness and their families or other community supports often do not know who to turn to in the case of a crisis or acute mental illness, and often the supports we do turn to are highly medicalised and do not support us socially. This is where the Intensive Home Based Support Service (IHBSS) has been invaluable. The Intensive Home Based Support Service has a proven ability to help people avoid hospital and has been a highly effective support service for people with acute mental illness.
Intensive Home Based Support Service includes clinical and nonclinical support, case management and coordination for people experiencing mental illness with the aim of avoiding crisis situations and mental instability. IHBSS in South Australia has shown a reduction in the number of hospital admissions and hospital bed stays by 10.3 days per individual per mental health crisis.
The same evaluation by IHBSS estimates that the saving in reduced hospital service costs was greater than the cost of the service. IHBSS has now been defunded by the commonwealth government, which claims that it is the responsibility of the state government to prioritise the mental health funding they are allocated. That is, the state government could choose to continue funding IHBSS if it chose to. My questions to the minister are:
1. Given that the minister is seeking to find cost savings in the health system, does he see the value in funding primary healthcare programs in the community that actually prevent people from needing to go into hospital and/or shorten their hospital stays?
2. Has the minister read the favourable figures from the evaluation of IHBSS and its ability to prevent hospital admission and reduce hospital stays?
3. Will the minister commit to funding IHBSS because of these cost savings and work together on the federal government in doing so?
The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change): I thank the honourable member for her most important question about the Intensive Home Based Support Service and, of course, the implied reference to the commonwealth’s shocking abrogation of their responsibilities to health and mental health in the states and territories of this country. This just goes further on the back of the billions of dollars ripped out of the health budgets of states and territories right around the country. Right around the country, billions of dollars—Labor states and Liberal states.
Labor states and Liberal states have had the guts ripped out of their health budgets because of the commonwealth unilaterally walking away from its responsibilities to the health of Australians—our citizens. They seem to have absolutely no shame. They think they can make these cuts to public health service provision and not wear any of the blame for it. They think they can make these cuts at a commonwealth level which hurts the most vulnerable in our society, in our community, and walk away with none of the blame sheeted home to them, and they try to shift that blame back to the states.
I say to the honourable member, with her very important question, let’s not fall into the trap that the commonwealth is setting for people by saying, ‘We’re going to cut the funding to the states’ and territories’ health budgets. We, the commonwealth, will slice into those by billions and billions of dollars over forward estimates. Oh, and by the way, the states—you can now pick that service up if you wish to.’ That is the outrageous proposition we hear from the commonwealth government, and they have been attempting to get away with it in areas of Aboriginal policy as well. They ripped half a billion dollars out of Aboriginal support services right around the country. How can the government, at a federal level, hold its head up when it talks to the South Australian or the Australian public and say, ‘We’re there for you,’ when they’re ripping the guts out of health and education budgets right around this country? I think the honourable member’s question—
Members interjecting:
The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: I think the honourable—
The PRESIDENT: Minister, sit down for a moment. Can I just remind the opposition that when you ask the questions, the Hon. Ms Vincent and others sit and listen intently so you can hear the answer. I think it’s important that you show the same respect for everyone else, and I think it’s important that you allow the minister to answer in silence.
The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Thank you, Mr President, for your protection. I need it—a lot. It is an absolutely vicious situation we find ourselves in with the commonwealth government ripping the funding away from the most vulnerable in our communities, right around the country, gutting the territory and states’ health and education budgets right around the country—billions and billions of dollars—and I think the honourable member’s question is incredibly important.
As I say to her, it is vitally important that none of us fall into the trap which the federal government would like to set for us and say, ‘Well, we’re walking away from our responsibilities, but you states, if you think that service is still important well then you can find out how you can fund it in other ways yourselves.’ It’s scandalous, it’s shocking, it’s morally bankrupt. I thank the honourable member for her question which I will undertake to take to the Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse in the other place, and seek a response on her behalf.
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: I have a supplementary question. Given the cuts, has the state government actually made direct representation to the federal government encouraging them to continue funding this important program?
The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change): I can’t speak for the minister in the other place about what approaches he has made in particular, but I can assure the honourable member that at every opportunity South Australian government ministers are standing up to the commonwealth government as they viciously attack, through funding cuts, the most vulnerable in our communities and will continue to do so.
