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The NSW Liberal Party’s Health Minister joined State Labor ministers in criticising the ACAT privatisation. The Aged Care Royal Commissioner was not happy, either.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has twice criticised the federal government for its determination to privatise Aged Care Assessment Teams.

“NSW has major concerns,” Mr Hazzard said in December. “It seems pre-emptive and unreasonable to be effectively privatising health aged care services while the Royal Commission into Aged Care is still under way. Not a lot of logic there.”

Mr Hazzard returned to the issue in January, saying it made no sense to involve a private service.

“My understanding is that there is not one state or territory leader who is in agreement with any involvement of the private sector in making the complex and delicate decisions around our aged citizens’ assessments for support packages in their home,” he said.

Mr Hazzard said the NSW Government was “not happy” there was no consultation with the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) before the decision was made.

“There has not been any discussion whatsoever between state, territory and federal ministers at COAG’s health ministers meeting, which is where a major reform like this needs to be discussed,” he said.

Mr Hazzard’s federal Liberal colleague, Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck, hit back, claiming the royal commission supported the privatisation move.

This earned a rebuke from the chair of the royal commission, Gaetano Pagone, QC.

Royal Commissioner rubbishes federal government’s claim

Commissioner Pagone said the commission’s interim report “did not endorse the government’s stated position” on privatising ACATs.

“Public concern has been expressed about statements made by the Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians that we had decided to support the privatisation of the Aged Care Assessment Teams in our interim report,” he noted.

In an interim report last year, the Royal Commission voiced concern about the aged care system’s increasing reliance on “market forces”.

“It is a myth that aged care is an effective consumer-driven market,” the interim report said.

Victorian Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers, Luke Donnellan, said his government was concerned by “the rush to privatisation”.

Queensland Acting Health Minister, Leanne Enoch, said privatisation “will not improve services for (elderly) Queenslanders and in fact could make the system more fragmented and harder to navigate.”

Ms Enoch added: “The Common-wealth thinks a market-led solution is the answer to every problem.”

“The reality is health systems are better placed to make the clinical assessments required to ensure people receive funding packages that reflect their needs.”

After a bushfire, the mental scars can last for years.

Past experiences, both in Australia and overseas, tell us that the mental health impact of our bushfire emergency could last for up to five years.

“We know that the impacts of natural disasters extend beyond the end of the emergency, with the mental impacts of the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires being felt up to five years post-disaster for some people,” Christine Morgan, the CEO of the National Mental Health Commission, told the Canberra Times.

“Because of this, it is important that the mental health and wellbeing of Australians is supported immediately, as well as providing ongoing long-term interventions.”

A study published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry (May 2014) looked at fire-hit areas about three years after the Victorian Black Saturday bushfires killed 173 people and levelled huge tracts of land.

The study found that more than 15 per cent of respondents in heavily affected areas reported probable PTSD associated with the fires, while 13 per cent reported depression and almost 25 per cent reported heavy drinking.

“In Victoria, we know all too well that recovery is not as simple as rebuilding infrastructure. It’s something that can take us not just months, but years – and we need to support people and their mental health every step of the way as they deal with the trauma,” said Luke Donnellan, Victoria’s acting minister for mental health.

Diane Ross-Glazer, a psychotherapist who has counselled disaster survivors and lived through bushfires herself in California told Time Magazine that as a result of the bushfires, Australia’s “psyche will change. You’re not only grieving what you lost; you’re grieving for your country”.

She said it was important to bring people together as they grieve, and to keep that connection going for months or even years after a disaster via public support groups, memorials and ceremonies.

Coping with bushfire stress and eco-anxiety

The summer’s bushfires have left many Australians despairing over the devastation of the bushfires on lives and property.

Experts say many people could now be vulnerable to “eco-anxiety” or what the American Psychological Association describes as “a chronic fear of environmental doom”.

Writing in The Conversation, Professor James Scott, the head of Mental Health at the QIMR Berghofer Mental Institute and his colleague Fiona Charlson outlined some measures to help people build resilience:

Connect with friends and family and positively engage in your community
Support those who are vulnerable – it benefits both the giver and receiver
Seek to reduce your own carbon footprint. This can alleviate feelings of guilt and helplessness and make a positive difference to the environment
Join one of the many groups advocating for the environment
Assist bushfire relief efforts
Seek mental health support if you feel your mental health is deteriorating.

Hazzard disowns ACAT privatisation

Grieving for what you’ve lost – and grieving for your country