ACT's political parties are divided on whether or not a community-wide review of ACT's mental health services would be beneficial.
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The ACT Liberals said figures on the number of people who killed themselves over the past six years during or after treatment by the territory's mental health system, released to The Canberra Times last week, were concerning.
While they believed there was no simple solution to reducing ACT's suicide toll, they are open to a review of ACT's mental health system.
ACT's Health Minister Katy Gallagher did not rule out a community-wide review but said the system was already regularly reviewed and monitored. She believed the focus needed to be on implementing change.
The ACT Greens said ''We know what we need to do'' and ''we need to get on with it and do it and look at the lessons we've learned''.
''We need to start increasing funding to community services,'' Greens health spokesperson Amanda Bresnan said.
''We have to look at preventing people from ending up in that crisis situation and when they come out into the community we need to help them recover so they don't end up back in that crisis situation.
''We need better support services particularly for carers so they know what to do and how to deal with the situation.
''Having carer advocates in mental health is something I'd like to see happen here in the ACT … providing support to the primary carer so that they know how to navigate the system.''
Ms Gallagher said more work could always be done to improve mental health services because ''any suicide is one too many''. But she said of all areas of health, community involvement and engagement happened most in mental health services. ''Can we understand more about it? Yes. Can we put more effort into the community sector to care for people in the recovery phase; yes we can and we should.''
''I think our systems always need to be under constant review.
''You would never say you had the best system or that there was no way you should change it or could change it … but we're growing it and developing it and there's more work to be done.''
Lifeline Canberra has been calling for a suicide review committee in the ACT because it says we don't know about suicides in the capital. It's something the ACT Greens support.
Ms Bresnan said more focus needed to be placed on what led someone to end their life and if there was something that could have been done to prevent it. She didn't believe a coronial process, which examined suicides, was enough because its focus was on ''that end point''.
Ms Gallagher said, ''I would need to understand the benefits of setting up a process like that as opposed to putting that effort into health services.''