Article - Glenside - Sunday Mail - 11 April 2010

29 Apr 2009 Media release

IN researching a bit of the history of the Glenside Hospital I came across an excellent presentation by Professor Robert Goldney. It is a history of the hospital and depression and the story Professor Goldney - Professor Emeritus with the Discipline of Psychiatry at the University of Adelaide - presents about the treatment of mental illness in South Australia is a fascinating one.

For the first 10 years after the settlement of the colony those suffering from mental illness were placed in prison. Prior to the partial completion of the Adelaide Goal in 1841 prisoners were kept in an overcrowded wooden shack. Before the shack, prisoners were kept in tents and chained to a log to prevent them escaping. It is understandable that from very early on there was public pressure to move the mentally ill out of prison and into a separate facility.

In 1846 the colony allocated an eight- room building and cottage to become the first mental health facility, called the Adelaide Lunatic Asylum and located on the grounds now occupied by Glenside Hospital.

A mere three years later, it was reported in the Adelaide Times that there was growing dissatisfaction with the size of the facility, and a need for further expansion due to overcrowding. As the population expanded, unsurprisingly the cases of mental illness grew.

By 1878 two facilities were in operation, one on North Tce and the other in Parkside, making a total of 507 available beds for a population of 252,000, or 201 beds per 100,000 people. But 131 years later, in 2009, there were just 30 more mental health beds avail- able per 100,000 people in South Australia. And this is despite figures today indicating about one in five Australians suffer from mental illness, including depression.

For years state governments have underfunded mental health services. Until recently the stigma attached to mental illness meant it was kept in the dark, out of the public eye, but this is changing rapidly.

I have some experience in this area as I had federal responsibility for mental health in the Howard government from 2004 until Labor took over in 2007, and during that time I saw first-hand the ongoing need to build on available resources for research and treatment of mental illness.

IN South Australia many people are I very concerned about the Rann Government's plans to ""slice and dice"" the state's key mental health facility, Glenside Hospital.

In the March state election Labor suffered a negative swing in the electorates surrounding Glenside Hospital, like Unley, Bragg, Adelaide, and Norwood. People used their vote to protest against changes that would see mental health services in South Australia greatly diminish. It would also see parklands and sports and recreation areas treasured by the community sold to developers. Labor plans to sell almost half of the land surrounding Glenside Hospital for a new housing development. Two additional large chunks will become a new supermarket, film development facility and car park. As a consequence mental health facilities will be downgraded - and all of these changes are occurring against the wishes of the community.

The protest to stop the redevelopment of the Glenside Hospital is far from over. I would encourage anyone passionate about preserving the hospital to get in touch with my office so I can keep you informed of any future developments.

I am also holding a mental health forum on April 21 with guests, Dr John Brayley, the Public Advocate, Dr Andrew Chanen, from Orygen Youth Health Research Centre in Melbourne, and my colleague Andrew Robb, the federal shadow finance minister.

Last year Andrew courageously admitted he was suffering from depression, and successfully sought treatment to overcome it. Anyone with an interest in mental health is welcome to attend the forum and can contact my office for details.

The historic Glenside Hospital needs to be preserved, and with the increase in the need for mental health services it is not the time for any government to be thinking of reducing current sup- port for mental health.