This can be fixed.

The Utopia Research Institute will once again present our proposal, this time at the Callan Park Mental Health Forum on Saturday 27th June 2008, 10.30am for 11.00am start at the Balmain Town Hall.

The Forum will  discuss what the future may hold for Mental Health services at Callan Park after Leichhardt Council takes care, control and management of parts of the site.

Our proposal was (and still is) simple and straightforward, to identify common ground between the Utopia Research Institute, Federal, State, and Local Government, and NGO organisations to form collaborations, combine skills, expertise, shared resources, and an understanding of critical community issues that must be addressed now.

Our proposal focuses on several areas to form win-win relationships in our local community. It addresses effective cross-sectoral collaboration making it possible to overcome challenges that are too difficult or complex for one organisation or sector to address alone.

Our proposal promotes an ‘Eco-Share’ concept by combining resources and competencies in innovative ways, enabling local government and supporting community organisations to enhance delivery of their objectives through leveraging and capitalising on complementary strengths and capabilities.

We believe that the Utopia Research Institute has the most appropriate mix of essential services that will provide the entire community with a full range of mental health programs and services.

I look forward to speaking on behalf of the Utopia Research Institute on Saturday.

Katherine McCormick. CEO
Utopia Research Institute Limited

The concept of ‘Community Based Care’ appears to have been lost in the great debate about Callan Park. It would appear that NSW is well and truly behind the times and local government is not listening to the people at the heart of the matter…those with mental illness and their families.

I had a chance to talk to someone recently who has spent time in several mental facilities. He was well dressed, well spoken and didn’t want to give me his name, why?  Because he was afraid, he said, that he had tried to tell his story and that of other mental illness sufferers at a rally at Callan Park, but was shouted down by a howling mob.

In my conversation with him, he said, “Oh God, I forgot! Only a very small number of people really know what’s best for all of us suffering mental illness, we won’t mention any names, but to those of us  with mental illness that have been, or have thankfully avoided being institutionalised, they’re known as BWB (Banner Waving Bastards).”

“The BWB think we want gardens to walk in to help our recovery, but what we really want is more home care services, delivered by people who understand our day to day needs, so that we have the  help we need  to let us stay in our own homes with our families and  our loved ones.”

“Once you’ve been institutionalised, even for a short time, you lose the respect of family and friends and people in the community avoid you.  Your record goes everywhere with you, each time someone finds out, it’s like being victimised again and again!”

In Victoria all stand-alone psychiatric hospitals have been closed and replaced with 24 hour mobile mental health crisis teams and case management teams that make home visits, thereby allowing mental patients to manage their illness and retain their dignity in the community. They have also set up fully supervised residential cluster houses and an impressive range of less supervised accommodation, creating supportive ‘households’ in the community.

And no, the Victorian State Government didn’t forget the acute and long-term mental health facilities, but they did make sure to build them on general hospital sites in order to guarantee that the best physical, mental and diagnostic care is provided to every mental health patient.

By moving the location of these facilities to general hospital sites, the Victorian government has given mental health patients massive benefits, from reducing the stigma of mental illness, to better access to general health care (sometimes a catalyst for the onset of mental illness).

So the question is this…for the long term health of our community should we be advocating for:
A)    Community Based Alternatives: to support those with mental illness now and to provide preventative measures for the future; or
B)    Institutional Care: by building more mental institutions – more beds – handing out more medication – more places to lock the mentally ill away from their community?

How much will it really cost?

Leichhardt Council and the Friends of Callan Park want Rozelle Hospital back in Callan Park. With the state of the economy the question is, how much will it cost the local community?

On 4th November 2008 a Council report stated that, “Potentially, there are significant financial risks associated with Callan Park, which, at this stage, cannot be quantified,” the report found. “It is strongly recommended that no binding commitments are made with regard to a lease of Callan Park until a comprehensive due diligence process is undertaken. Sustainable recurrent funding, not just for a few years, but for 99 years, must also be secured.”

The president of the group Friends of Callan Park, Hall Greenland, said the state or federal government should fund the park’s upkeep.

Look at it this way. If the state or federal government had the money and the inclination to spend it on Callan Park…they would have done it themselves, yet Council is spending thousands trying to get the government to hand over millions. And by the way, this money comes from taxes that are levied not only our community but all of NSW.

In Leichhardt Council’s recent “Scoping Workshop’ states that the ‘Annual Infrastructure Renewal Costs’ are supposedly down from 5.5M to (approximately)  $4M and this is just to maintain Callan Park. In the longer term the cost will go up to $90 million, this would be needed to refurbish the 72 buildings on the site, add to this the millions more that would be needed to pay for remediation of the toxic soil which is contaminated with incinerated hospital waste.

Almost anyone that’s built or renovated a home will know that costs can and do blow way out of proportion, regardless of how well or how often the numbers are crunched.

The relocation of Rozelle Hospital to Concord was over budget – so one has to ask, if the state government with its top accountants can’t keep within a budget, how do we expect the Officers at Leichhardt Council, who will be managing the project – do any better?

To attempt to reinstate Rozelle Hospital to its form glory will take years (10 + years?) and enough money to build two (or three) state of the art mental health facilities.

Don’t get me wrong! I know that more mental health beds are needed. The question is…can our tax dollars be better spent helping those with mental illness by just providing more beds – or should we also be providing preventative mental health alternatives to prevent our community’s ever growing need for beds in the future?

Have your say!