It’s distressing to hear nursing staffs’ concerns that mothers experiencing acute mental illness will fall through the cracks under new plans for an Intensive Residential Parenting Unit at St Johns Park. Worse still was the Minister for Health’s refusal to acknowledge this issue in Parliament.
The Mother Baby Unit at Royal Hobart Hospital is set to close and be replaced by an Intensive Residential Parenting Unit at St Johns Park. It follows what was already a significant service reduction from the closure of the St Helen’s clinic.
This is not a like-for-like replacement. The Mother Baby Unit provides treatment for mothers with acute mental illness and allows their babies to stay with them.
The new unit’s care model provides parenting support around sleep and settling, attachment and behavioural concerns. Staff are concerned it will not address complex mental health needs of mothers, who will need to be admitted to regular mental health units without their babies.
The Intensive Residential Parenting Unit is clearly not going to be fit for purpose for mothers with acute mental illness. This will create service gaps, and separate mothers experiencing really difficult mental health challenges from their babies even when they’re clinically able to remain with them.
It was baffling that in Question Time the Minister wouldn’t acknowledge this significant issue. Surely everyone can agree mothers should have access to specialist acute mental health services that allow them to be with their babies.
These gaps in service are the very real impacts of the Liberals’ $700 million cuts to health. We call on the Minister to heed the calls of the ANMF and health professionals and ensure there are facilities which allow mothers experiencing complex mental health issues to stay with their babies when it is clinically safe to do so.
