The Wire

Mental health services in Australia are at crisis point, according the chair of a Federal senate committee looking into the sector, today in Melbourne. Australian Democrats Senator, Lyn Alison, is chairing the inquiry. She says that particularly in Victoria, psychiatric services are under resourced, with nightmare scenarios of patients being shackled to trolleys for days while they await assessment. Other submissions she has assessed as part of the inquiry have claimed that young people have committed suicide after being released too early from hospital. Sane Australia’s executive Director, Barbara Hocking, appeared before today’s hearing. She told the Wire that the picture painted by Senator Lyn Alison concerning Victoria, is representative of wider trend of a decline in services that’s happening right across Australia.