By Bronwen Beechey
ADELAIDE — On November 20, 500 people rallied in Victoria Square to protest the SA government's budget cuts to mental health services. Mental health workers and clients, along with members of the Australian Nurses Federation (ANF) and the Public Service Association (PSA), condemned the cuts and the attitude of health minister Dean Brown.
Brown recently removed Anne Burgess, manager of the Mental Health Unit of the Health Commission and a highly regarded authority on mental health issues, from her position. According to Coralie Haynes of the Southern Region Consumers Mental Health Advisory Group, Burgess' "reassignment" was because she was a strong advocate of clients' rights.
Just prior to Burgess' removal, the government's chief advisor on psychiatry, Professor Bob Goldney, resigned because after a year in the job, he still had not been granted a formal meeting with Brown.
Haynes told Green Left that cuts to mental health services were resulting in people waiting longer to get treatment, or paying to be treated in private hospitals. Those leaving psychiatric institutions have to wait up to three weeks for support care, increasing the risk of suicide.
Haynes described the rally as an important breakthrough. "It was the first mental health rally in SA and possibly the first in Australia. There is still a stigma attached to mental illness, and for people to publicly identify themselves as having a mental illness is a big step ... Mental illness affects one in five people, and with increasing unemployment that figure is probably going to rise."
The cuts to these services are just part of an overall attack on the SA health system. In recent weeks, several hospitals have announced cutbacks to services.
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital is cutting one day a week from its outpatient clinics, resulting in some patients' appointments being moved as far forward as next March. The Women's and Children's Hospital has announced that it will have to start turning away women from its obstetrics unit.
Modbury Hospital, which is contracted out to Healthscope, has cut its emergency services in half, resulting in seven theatre nurses losing their jobs. It has slashed its post-acute community care program for emergency patients. The ANF has threatened industrial action and demanded that management consult over the changes.