HON ALISON XAMON (North Metropolitan) [ 5.16 pm ]: I rise to make some comments about the answer to a question that I received last week from the parliamentary secretary representing the Minister for Mental Health. For the information of members, I asked some specific questions about what is being proposed for the establishment of a mental health recovery college within Western Australia . Members may not be aware of recovery colleges. They are an important part of the mental health landscape.
The PRESIDENT : Members , there is a lot of noise and movement in the chamber. It is difficult to hear Hon Alison Xamon, so if members want to have a conversation, they need to take it outside, or be quiet.
Hon ALISON XAMON : Recovery colleges are an important part of the suite of services available for people, particularly people who either are living with chronic or serious mental health issues or are at a particular point in their recovery, to enable them to gain valuable skills, to re-engage with the community — a whole range of things. I would like members to know that there are many models of recovery colleges around the world. Some recovery colleges are excellent and serve the purpose as originally intended, but it is important that members are aware that some recovery colleges have effectively been embarked on in a fairly half-hearted or ill-conceived fashion. It is important to note when we are talking about a commitment to recovery colleges that not all recovery colleges are the same. With my background, I have been fortunate to have visited a number of recovery colleges, and some of them are excellent, but I have also seen recovery colleges that are not particularly successful. It really goes to the heart of making sure that if we are to invest in a mental health recovery college in this state, which I think we need to do, we need to ensure that we get the model right.
We saw within the 10-year services plan a commitment to working towards a recovery college, which is really important. I note also that the Labor Party went to the election with a commitment to establish recovery colleges, which was really welcomed. People within the mental health system have been very happy about that. A particular commitment was given to introduce recovery colleges specifically in Wanneroo and also around Royal Perth Hospital. When this particular commitment was made during the election, it raised a few eyebrows within the mental health sector, because this certainly was news to the people who had been working very hard to ensure that a recovery college is established within Western Australia .
I want to point out that there has been a grassroots movement of consumers, carers, family members, key non-government organisations and clinicians who have been working collaboratively in a co-productive fashion to try to design what is hoped will be the best model for a recovery college within this state. This work has been ongoing for quite some time. I asked whether the minister would table the business case for the work that had been done to date, some of which has been funded by the Mental Health Commission. I asked also for a commitment from the minister that the government would build on the extensive work that has been done here by key people within the sector. As I say, these are people who are representative with extensive lived experience who have started to design exactly the sort of recovery college they want.
I want to acknowledge that the parliamentary secretary then went on to answer the question and was attempting to be very helpful — I do not want this to be perceived as criticism around that — and to give additional information from what was proposed in the budget, because I asked the question before the budget had been released. The answer indicated that $ 200 000 would be made available for the development of a comprehensive model of service delivery for a recovery college. I want to say from the outset that on the face of it, this sounds really welcome, and that is probably exactly the sort of money we need to look at to make sure we have a comprehensively developed model. But I am concerned that we do not lose the really important work that has been done by the recovery college steering group. I recognise that there is concern, perhaps arising from the Mental Health Commission — I guess that the Minister for Mental Health shares this concern — that the people who have comprehensively put together this work will ultimately put up their hand to tender for the process and that will constitute some sort of conflict. I, for one, recognise that we need to ensure that our procurement processes are as squeaky clean as possible. That is critical. One my concerns in this instance is that I cannot remove the fact that the people who potentially will put up their hand for this work have been designing exactly what we need in this state for a very long time. However, I am concerned that we may end up with a design going out to tender for a recovery college that may not reflect what this very broad group of people within the sector have indicated they want for a model of a recovery college.
I want to make it clear that the purpose of my question was not to ask specifically about what was in the budget but to get information about what was intended for the extensive work that has been done. I am concerned to ensure that as we move forward with a recovery college — it is great to see a commitment within the budget for that to happen — we do not end up with some sort of desk-top design pulled together by people who are external to the sector, who do not have lived experience and who are not well placed to determine what that model will look like. I again recognise the need to ensure we are absolutely pure around our procurement processes. I also realise that it is very important within mental health to make sure we respect the work that has been legitimately co-produced — and, in this case, that is what we are talking about. I urge the Minister for Mental Health and indeed the Mental Health Commissioner to be very mindful of the level o f work and depth and commitment that has gone into designing what I hope will be WA’s first recovery college. I hope it will be an absolutely premier college — one that we as a state can be very proud of and one that can pretty much showcase us internationally.