St Philip’s principal makes a significant contribution to Senate inquiry

Senator Deborah O'Neill with students and staff of St Phillips Christian College

Chair of the Senate inquiry into health, Senator Deborah O’Neill, has called on the Turnbull Government to stop ignoring the National Mental Health Commission (NMHC) review and respond to the breakthrough reforms.

Sen O’Neill used case studies from a Central Coast school to help inform the views of the Senate inquiry.

Sen O’Neill said the Senate Select Committee on Health heard from witnesses in Canberra and in Sydney that the NMHC’s crucial report does articulate the significant issues and costs to the economy and society posed by an unmet need for mental health reforms.

Witnesses also noted that the work of the Commission was unnecessarily contained by the government’s directive that any proposed reforms needed to be achieved using existing resources and with no extra funding.

“Continued failure to respond to their own commissioned report is not only highly disrespectful to all those working in Mental Health, it also puts more and more people in our community at risk of long term harm from mental illhealth,” Sen O’Neill said.

“The tension between crisis management needs and early intervention and prevention means are a focus of the report.

“Witnesses told us that neither end of the mental health system is adequately funded to meet the needs that exist.

“We know that good public health campaigns and early intervention that is properly and consistently funded, can prevent or bring a mental health crisis under control early, before it snowballs into a far more life-damaging and expensive problem,” she said.

Holistic intervention strategies had proved successful at St Philip’s Christian College in Narara, whose deputy principal, Mr Malcolm East, gave evidence to the committee in Sydney.

According to Mr East, personalised plans are written for at-risk students in a collaborative atmosphere involving the student’s family, and in consultation with the school counsellor, teachers and outside agencies such as Headspace.

Mr East, who tabled sample individual education plans to the inquiry, said the school aims to provide early intervention, effective intervention and flexible intervention.

“There are a lot of stereotypes that suggest private schools are either immune or have lower incidence of mental health issues than the public sector and it’s certainly not been our experience,” Mr East said.

“In fact our response to mental health has actually attracted enrolments specifically where parents are looking for solutions or support for students with significant mental health needs.

“If we’re able to achieve those interventions, we are going to get stronger results from our students at school, which is what schools are meant to be doing, and those students are going to be highly effective out there in the community,” he said.

Sen O’Neill said she toured the K-12 school in August, which also has a pioneering program for young mothers in the student body. “The school’s strategy aligns with the central message of the NMHC review,” she said.

“The only way to address this is through a whole system reform to build a better integrated, personcentric system that achieves desired outcomes through the effective use of existing resources, and a flexible approach that recognises diversity of people, culture, circumstance and location.”

“Mental health deserves better than a self-serving government which fails to understand the needs of people living with mental illness and the organisations that provide vital services to support them,” Ms O’Neill said.

Media release,
Aug 31, 2015
Anne Charlton, Office of
Deborah O’Neill