the mullers and packers union of australia

Welcome back to mpua land. Today I'd like to grind an axe

that I'm feeling very partial to.

One that seldom gets the kind of airspace it should be getting.

That's right, fellows, today we talk mental health.

Here in the great state of NSW, as in other states and territories,

mental health is severely underfunded

and the police are routinely involved.

The police are able to subdue, by whatever means necessary,

a person they believe to be a danger to themselves or others-a pretty big callfor a cop on the beat with next to no expertise in matters psychiatric!

(Imagine you are having a heart attack, or an asthma attack,

or you break your leg

and you are taken to hospital, by force, in a Police Paddywagon..

..go on! double dare you!)

The legislation that dictates health department policy and procedure,

like all laws in Australia, very much continue to reflectour early shared history as a penal colony.

The forced closure of Rozelle hospital, against all sound advice,

reflects something of the greed of the NSW Labour government.Rather than refurbish the oldest asylum in our history,

State Labour begins to parcel it off

to community groups and developers.

Would you guess that the Harbor Foreshore Authority plays a pivotal role

in saying who gets what.What is being lost is more than just the bricks and mortar,

the rich history of the site,

and the interplay between normals and mentals in Callan park.

Rozelle has long been a teaching hospital.And let's never forget the therapeutic value of being able to stroll

the grounds 72 different ways and still end up down

at the glorious river that is Iron Cove BayFar from the madding crowd.


Most hospitals in NSW, at least on a regional basis, have a mental health unit.

This would typically comprise a locked ward, and an open ward, a dining room etc

and a patch of porch of some sortfor the smokers-of which there are, typically, many.

This smokers space is currently under threat in NSW

because bureaucrats insist in acting as

though The State knows best.

In this instance, an error of some proportions- given that peak medical bodies

across the planet

recognise the many benefits of people in high stress situations,

like being mental in a locked ward,

'allowed' a cigarette.

It's all a bit dying-mans last-request, yes?

Far from the madding crowd


Outside of major cities, and regional centres of excellence

(thanks for the terminology Michael Costa)

my sources report that services are a bit hit and miss, a bit thin on the ground...This can also be true for big cities like Sydney.

In closing Rozelle and transferring services to Concorde,

the government places further burdens on ill people and their families.

Rozelle hospital is easily accessed via public transport services-Concorde is almost impossible without a car.I also feel dutybound to point out that ConcordeHospitals primary function is as a repatriation hospital

-a place of care and respite for war vets. And while I'm all for integration and multi medical whatevers,

the traumas of war are strikingly different to the traumas of mania

or schizophrenia or depression

or any of the more 'everyday' disorders of the post-modern era.Aren't they?

I do truly believe that we have missed a terrific opportunity

to do some real good

in the areas of mental health,

that in closing Rozelle Hospital we lose, forever,

a place of great madness,great care;

and priceless teaching opportunities that could only ever have enhanced

the pursuits of best practice and excellence

in the fields of mental illness and recovery.

Rozelle Hospital has the most amazing grounds and the river, the glorious river,

for people and their visitors to escape, temporarily,
a clinical setting.

None of the other hospitals in Sydney offer the respite of Rozelle.We've made a big mistake people.

A grave error of judgement, really really grave.Think about it.Far from the madding crowd.


With more Australians falling foul of the great buggaboo of mental illness

-1 in 5 and counting,wouldn't you think it opportune to conserve, even expand,

rather than reduce services?

It's not as though we're building new hospitals or mental health services

with the salemoney.

Again, as with The Womens Hospital - moved from Paddo to Randwick.

As with The childrens Hospital- moved from Camperdown and Randwick

to Westmead,

Let me just ask; what now lies on the sites at Paddo and Camperdown?

Rich people housing!

Coming soon to Callan Park? Ask The Premier, Kristina Keneally and her apperatchicks in State Parliament

after all, they're our elected representatives-arent they?

Answerable and responsible to us, yes?

So it's safe to conclude that closing hospitals and relocating

services to existing hospitals is,

in effect, reducing hospital services.

In the high demand areas of mental illness and recovery,

this reads as a false economy to me.
And that'd be the point yes?

The pursuit of excellence forever sacrificed to the false economies ofideology and pragmatism.As Derryn Hinch used to scold: Shame Sydney Shame.





Featured below, a beautiful image of A Pleasure Garden, a parcel of 11 acres

of mostly native gardens built for the patients of

Rozelle Hospital/Callan Park Lunatic Asylum in the 1880's.

Far from the madding crowd, indeed.

For more history and information about Callan Park and Rozelle Hospital
http://www.cs.nsw.gov.au/mhealth/rozelle/rozhistory