Rachel Stephen-Smith said access to sexual and reproductive health services was vital for young people. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
The Nurse-led Walk-in Centre model will be extended to four of the ACT’s public colleges if Labor is re-elected on 19 October.
At a press conference at Lake Ginninderra College, Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said the centres would be established on campus under the leadership of Advance Practice Nurses and offer a range of services, including preventive healthcare, sexual and reproductive healthcare, and mental healthcare, as well the treating of minor illnesses and injuries.
Three full-time nurses will be based at the college clinics, and regular visits and health sessions will be conducted at other public colleges.
They will also work with an expanded School Youth Nurse Health Program, which will visit every public high school in the ACT.
Ms Stephen-Smith said Labor will add seven more to the 10-strong Student Youth Nurse program and a further 15 psychologists or mental health professionals to provide extra support across the school system.
“They provide everything from vaccinations to healthcare advice and support and preventive health education across our school network,” she said.
“And, of course, across primary care as well, to ensure that these services are then linked in if a young person does have a family GP ensuring that with the student’s permission, that information is shared with their family practitioner as well.”
Ms Stephen-Smith said it made a huge difference to the outcomes of young people as they could get healthcare wherever and whenever they needed it.
“Young people are not inclined to go and search for a medical practitioner or nurse to get support,” she said.
“But we’ve seen through the nurse-led Walk-in Clinics, and now through this program in our schools, students will be able to access support, health advice, and counselling if required with the advanced nurse clinics in our schools.
“That will make a huge difference to their educational experiences because they’ll be getting support at school where they need it, as well as teachers being able to access that support as well.”
Ms Stephen-Smith said that the advice from the Youth Advisory Council was that access to sexual and reproductive health services was vital for young people, and they needed to be able to do that safely in a trusted place.
She said the Walk-in Centre model was popular with Canberrans and had been successful in diverting people from the ACT’s emergency departments, with data showing an average of a 1.9 per cent fall in GP-type presentations.
“They have been successful in diverting emergency department presentations, which are much more expensive to deliver,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
She added that on a cost and service basis, Walk-in Centres are on par with urgent care centres in other jurisdictions.
Calls from doctors for a review of the model were partially motivated by politics, she said.
Education Minister Yvette Berry said recruiting psychologists was a national challenge, but mental health support workers, such as speech therapists, occupational therapists, social workers and counsellors, would offer similar support.
The boost to mental health services would deliver the optimum ratio for psychologists to students of one per 500.
The health recruitment program is over five years. She said the rollout and engagement of all these professionals would start from 1 July next year.
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