The recent addition of an adolescent mental health

SHIRLEY is a strong, well-educated and articulate woman. She is good at what she does and as a professional has spent a number of years in a leadership role in a fairly large Toowoomba-based organisation.

When I met with her late last year I entered a secret world that most of us know far too little about. She has an adolescent son with a mental illness.

Those of us who are parents have had the momentary chilling experience of a child going missing for a few hours. We fear the worst and become increasingly frantic as none of the usual options check out. Try having a child disappear for days and even weeks at a time.

Add to this the fact that your son or daughter is prone to risk-taking behaviour and the terror must be paralysing.

Readers may remember young Declan Crouch who at 13 went missing for three months in the Cairns district. When his body was discovered it was later revealed that he had taken his own life.

When Shirley's son has an episode he ranges from being extremely violent, where she fears for her own safety, to the darkest of deep depression with self-harming behaviour a constant factor.

Last year a relative of mine who lives in one of our capital cities had his daughter present with a severe mental health condition. Incredibly in a rich nation like Australia, in a well-resourced Australian city - when my relative picked up the phone for help there was very little out there.

One of the key challenges is the lack of ongoing support.

Support is so thin on the ground that families lurch from crisis to crisis. They get to know the police well, they know the accident and emergency section of the hospital very well but there is little in the way of early intervention or ongoing support.

On occasions Shirley's son knows that he "is not feeling well" and both he and his mother have a fair idea that there will be a major episode in four days time.

There is very little out there to help him and his family. Eventually when the episode arrives Shirley waits it out until he is picked up off the streets - hoping and praying that somebody will find him before it is too late.

The recent addition of an adolescent mental health unit is a welcome service for the Toowoomba region. It means that families with young people no longer have to travel for what often is life-saving treatment.

Last year Shirley told me it was a three-month wait to see a public psychiatrist. A case worker was only available for a half hour session every two to four weeks.

This level of support is too little and tragically in some cases is too late. Shirley told me that her son is not the only one - and often in a homeless shelter you will find young people suffering from a mental disorder.

The need for respite for parents in these situations is acute - but who can step into the breach?

On Friday night Queensland's 730 Report on ABC television featured a story on a crisis in youth mental health in far north Queensland. Local Federal member Warren Entsch highlighted the fact that we cannot continue quibbling over money when young people's lives are at stake.

Young people and their families are in a constant crisis in southern Queensland as well. If this was another health issue affecting young people, we as a community would not stand for it.

But the stigma surrounding mental health means that the juvenile justice system and our jails eventually take the issue away from our glance. Out of mind - out of sight. We find the budgets for police and corrective services to deal with young people suffering - but we can't find the money for health professionals and programs proven to work.

I can't imagine walking a mile in Shirley's shoes - but I hope that one day we as a society will create a way in which her son is safe and flourishes and that she can finally have a good night's sleep.