Statistically there are 176,900 young Western Australians struggling with their mental health. In WA there is one inpatient services for those under the age of 16, Perth Children's Hospital. However there is only 24 beds available and the wait time can be staggering. Many youth are turned away by the system due to the lack of resources. This is utterly unacceptable, the youth of today are the future of this country, of this world. The government ought to be doing more to help those in need.

In the Perth Metropolitan area there are 11 community outpatient services, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). In order to be “accepted” into the service you must be at a crisis point, even then you could be waiting months for your first appointment. On many occasions there is one psychiatrist allocated to multiple CAMHS. This makes appointments regarding medication harder to obtain. There are always multiple psychologists working at any given CAMHS but a lot of the time they are overseeing copious amounts of patients. This can lead to psychologists becoming burnt out and intern patients not receiving the adequate care that they need and deserve. Psychologists are also not fixed to one CAMHS, so it is common for a psychologist change to a different location which leaves the patient waiting up to 4 months for a new case worker. 

This is all caused by the government’s under funding of mental health services. Health minister of WA Roger Cook has been under fire a lot recently as hospitals in WA are at there limits. This is not just for mental health services but the hospitals as a whole. Mark McGowan and the labour party have committed 495million dollars in funding for Western Australia’s Mental Health Services. This includes a 10 bed facility for youth in WA. This is a short term facility however and only rises the number of beds to 34. There is also a long term housing facility for youth in WA struggling with mental illnesses, it is unclear how many young people this can support but it is definitely a positive start. 

While the Government is establishing a lot of new facilities I encourage more funding of pre existing services. As an example, Homestead For Youth is a non for profit organisation that provides short - long term support. Due to this being a non for profit funds are slim, Homestead for Youth is located on a farm which means a lot of the money goes towards keeping the livestock healthy. Homestead For Youth is doing amazing things, and I would love to see the government helping out as Homestead is changing lives. 

This petition is made on the basis of more consistent funding for all mental health services for the youth of Western Australia. While the government has recently started to allocate more funding for the mental health systems I still feel like there is need for more. The lives of the future are at risk.