“I’ve worked as a mental health nurse in NSW for almost 10 years, and in that time I’ve seen a real shift in the preparation of new staff entering the field,” Mental Health CNC Damon McKenzie told the Minister for Mental Health Rose Jackson.

“What most mental health nurses learn when it comes to treating patients with major mental illnesses is ad hoc. It depends entirely on where they start and who is there to teach them. Without training I see poor practice, and sometimes the wrong practice. These are practices that aren’t evidence-based, ethical or safe.

“I’ve worked with both new starters and senior nurses who lacked the fundamentals of mental health nursing. That is, recognising deterioration, understanding behavioural escalation or knowing how or when to intervene.

“I saw this play out during an incident at one of the inpatient units where a patient, who had been visibly escalating for hours, ended up setting a bonfire in the courtyard of the mental health unit, using hospital linen. The warning signs were there. Staff had even documented them, but without proper training, they didn’t recognise the signs for what they were.

“When the fire was lit, staff stood back, waiting for instructions, unsure what to do. It was a security guard who eventually entered the unit and put the fire out. The patient was injured. That injury didn’t happen because staff didn’t care. It happened because they weren’t equipped. They were failed by a system that isn’t training people enough and in turn the system failed the patient.

“And those of us working with these people, every day, know just how much that matters.”

Mental Health CNC Warren Isaac’s question to the Minister for Mental Health:

“Will you commit to resourcing a working group with the NSWNMA to develop and implement a standardised mental health specialty training pathway for nurses, recognised across all Local Health Districts and accessible via the HETI platform – with a draft for consultation within 12 months and implementation readiness within 18 months?”

Minister Jackson’s reply:

“Yes, I will. I’ve been told that there is a mental health pathway in practice module that HETI runs. Clearly that is not hitting the mark. That’s not acceptable to me. We’ve already initiated a process to revise that. I can give you a commitment: Yes, we can and that timeframe is reasonable. And yes, I will ensure delegates nominated by the NSWNMA are active and full participants in that working group.”