Ms HALL (3:35 PM) —Firstly, I would like to congratulate the member for Gilmore for bringing this very important matter to the House. The issue of mental illness is one that is largely ignored and has been ignored over the years. In saying that, I would like to recognise that it is very prevalent within our community. Its prevalence does not guarantee that it will receive the resources and support that it needs from all levels of government.

There is a need to improve mental health services throughout Australia. It is paramount that governments of all persuasions act now to address this issue. There is a need for increased funding for mental health services and for the provision of proper care for mentally ill Australians. Mental illness is a disease prevalent throughout the community and I want to touch on just how prevalent it is. One in five people have some form of mental illness. One in five people, similarly, suffer from depression—one in four women and one in six men.

The definition of mental health is the ability to interact with one’s environment and with other people in a way that promotes subjective wellbeing, optimal development and the use of cognitive, affective and relational abilities, and the ability to negotiate daily challenges and social interactions of life without experiencing undue emotional or behavioural incapacity. Such incapacities are symptoms of mental illness. I think that mental illness has developed, expanded and increased within our society to a large extent because it is a symptom of our society and the way our society operates today. Within our society people are more likely to be dislocated than they were in the past, and that sense of community that has existed throughout time has dissipated to some extent. The causes of mental illness are many and varied. It can be caused by internal workings of the body, such as chemical imbalances within the brain, or by external things such as family, loss of job et cetera. So there is a wide range of causes of mental illness.

It is an illness that leads to stigmatisation. Quite often members would read in the paper that a person who robbed a petrol station, let us say, was suffering from schizophrenia. But you do not read that a person  who robbed a service station was suffering from a back injury. It is just that simple terminology that is used. This stigmatisation leads to exclusion. People with mental illness, because of their bizarre behaviour, are often ignored and avoided, and this leads to further alienation, which in turn leads to an exacerbation of their condition. Mental illness is a disease that engenders little sympathy. There is a lack of understanding of the causes and of the behaviour of people with mental illness. Its disability is not necessarily recognised. People react to the way people approach them. It is feared to some extent. People with mental illness are often held responsible for their behaviour rather than recognised as having a mental illness. People with mental illness are more likely to be homeless and more likely to be unemployed. As a person who worked with people that suffered from mental illness, I know it is very difficult for them to find work and to maintain work. They are more likely to be in jail, they are more likely to be socially and economically disadvantaged, they are more likely to be isolated, and they are less likely to have contact with their friends and family and the support they need.

I recognise that I am running out of time. I would just like to put on the record that it is essential that governments at all levels work together to ensure that people suffering from mental illnesses have the resources and care that they need. It is important that we move away from the current silo mentalities, that we work together and that we introduce the proper education programs that will lead to the recognition, the treatment and the support of people with mental illness. (Time expired)