Press Conference - Centenary Hospital, Canberra

ARABELLA GIBSON, GIDGET FOUNDATION AUSTRALIA CEO: First of all, I'd like to thank Senator Gallagher for hosting us today here at the Centenary Hospital. I'd also like to thank David Smith, the Member for Bean, for supporting the Gidget Foundation in our efforts, and also our lived experience advocate and beautiful Gidget angel, Kate Brow, who joins us today as well to share her lived experience story and her journey of perinatal depression and anxiety. The Gidget Foundation began 24 years ago through great tragedy. A gorgeous girl whose nickname was Gidget - her real name was Louise - tragically was suffering from unrecognised postnatal depression and anxiety. And what that meant was that when her little girl, Jasmine, was nine months old, she didn't know where to turn, she didn't know how to get help and she didn't know even what was really wrong with her. Unfortunately for Gidget, she did take her own life, and this was despite incredible love from her friends and her family and her husband, Dave. They had wanted very much to have their little baby, Jasmine. They'd gone through IVF and all sorts of things to, you know, really challenge them to get there and finally they had their little girl. But Gidget couldn't see any other way. And it was really quite confronting, the grief, because Gidget was this kind of really vivacious, effervescent, gorgeous woman. She was in her early 30s, she had a career, and she had her longed-for baby. She was the kind of girl that everything was always red, she had red nails, red lips, red wedding dress, and even, as you can see, our logo and colours are red to represent her.

So when Gidget took her life, her friends and her family came together and they decided what had happened to Gidget, they didn't want to happen to anyone else ever again. And that started an incredible legacy which, 24 years later, here we are today, announcing our 36th Gidget House across Australia, here in the ACT. When the Gidget Foundation started, we started very much as a grassroots organisation, but we were driven to drive the education, awareness, and advocacy of parents suffering from perinatal depression and anxiety. We know that one in five new mums and one in ten new dads will be diagnosed with perinatal depression or anxiety, and that's just the ones that are diagnosed. There's 100,000 Australians every single year who are diagnosed with this illness and we know that the intergenerational impact is significant, and with the support and help of the services that the Gidget Foundation offers we can make a difference and we can really change that. We know that perinatal depression and anxiety costs the Australian economy $877 million every single year, and we know that our services provide a 3.7 times return on that investment. So, for every dollar spent, it's 3.7 dollars in savings that we can offer the Australian economy. Our Gidget Houses, I mentioned before, are located right across Australia. And what we offer is a psychological service that is face-to-face and via telehealth, so we offer a blended model of care. It's up to 10 sessions utilising the Medicare Better Access Initiative, and as a charitable organisation, we then cover all of the costs of delivering those services outside of that, from bookings to triage to clinician retention, and we now have 175 clinicians Australia-wide delivering our services. We recently launched the Diploma of Perinatal Mental Health, the first of its kind in the country, and we've now graduated another 65 new clinicians across Australia into the workforce as a result of that incredible, innovative initiative.

Here in the ACT, we know that 2,000 parents every single year will be diagnosed with perinatal depression and anxiety. That's based on 12,000 parents becoming parents for the first time each year. This particular service will make a significant difference to supporting those people and to ensuring that they have the best start for their family, so that they can go on to thrive and not just survive. Thank you.

JOURNALIST: Looking at the Canberra centre, how many sort of clinicians will you have, how many people are you expecting to be able to see and that sort of thing?

GIBSON: Look, we usually will have the centre filled at least five days a week. We often work on weekends too if we can gain capacity with the clinicians. So, we'd be hoping to support at least 25 appointments per week, which will be a significant delivery of services that currently doesn't exist here in the ACT. The site will be opening in Tuggeranong and we're really looking forward to it.

JOURNALIST: How well do you find the relationship between GPs actually referring mothers who need this help? Does there need to be sort of an education program maybe here in Canberra before the centre launches, just to make sure that GPs do understand that this is a service they can refer to?

GIBSON: Yeah, absolutely, and we will work really hard with various referrers right across the area to ensure that they're aware of our services and so that they know how to refer into our services. People do need a mental healthcare plan and a referral from their GP, and that's really important from a holistic perspective so that we ensure that we are looking after people in the best possible way and they don't have to keep repeating their story over and over, and that we can ensure that we can bring in the services that they need.

JOURNALIST: How confident are you in finding those clinicians to come in? Obviously, there's massive shortages across the nation for healthcare professionals.

GIBSON: We usually start our recruitment process by offering telehealth services, and what that means is that we can begin recruiting before the centre even opens, so that the day the centre opens, we have someone ready to go already. So, it is a challenge, and it's a really important challenge that you raise, but it's one that we do have a lot of mitigation around how we can ensure that that is successful.

JOURNALIST: And how much will you rely on further federal funding to keep the doors open? Is it sort of, you just get this initial cash injection, and then you are self-sufficient from that point?

GIBSON: We are a charitable organisation, and we have a range of different revenue sources, from philanthropic donors to corporate partners. And of course, government, both state and Commonwealth. The Australian Government has been significantly funding this particular initiative, and we're really grateful to the Australian Labor Party for that support. I think that what we're seeing right across the Government is a true enthusiasm for the work that we're doing, and so we will, of course, be naturally looking to continue that relationship. We would hate to see all these centres open and then have to close them. That's not the idea, but our funding will continue through until the end of FY '26, so June 30 next year, and we're currently looking at how we can progress that further.

KATE BROW, GIDGET FOUNDATION ANGEL: Thank you, Senator Gallagher and Mr Smith for being here today and giving me this opportunity to share my story. I do this in the hope that someone listening might find the help that they need, and also to break down the stigma for seeking help for mental illness, which is often a lot more significant in country towns like where I'm from. My name is Kate. I work for Motherland, which is a charity providing support to isolated, rural mums. I'm a mother of three girls and I'm a farmer's wife. We farm sheep and cattle in the Snowy Mountains. I'm also one of the one in five mothers that experienced postnatal anxiety. I suffered through my first daughter's first year with undiagnosed anxiety. I tried to get help, and I couldn't get through, and I also put on a big facade about pretending that I was fine when I really wasn't. But it wasn't until I had my second daughter under traumatic circumstances that I got the support that I needed from the Gidget Foundation. Imagine you're 35 weeks pregnant, you've got a toddler, you've been choking on the bushfire smoke of the 2019-20 summer, your husband is incredibly hard working, and he is suffering from crippling anxiety because of the three-month drought that we've been experiencing on our farm. Suddenly, the bushfires come closer, burning up from Victoria, and they're heading towards our southernmost property. So, not only is my husband farming all day, feeding sheep, but he's also fighting fires at night, because he's in the volunteer fire brigade. It's been a hot summer's day, and you suddenly notice that your daughter's not moving in your belly anymore. Go to bed, drink a heap of water and hope tomorrow it's going to be okay. In the morning, you wake up and you see the Still Aware magnet on the fridge, and you think she's still not moving. I poked and prodded, still not moving. Then my eldest daughter came in and said, Mum, Frankie's coming today, matter of factly. So, we decided to go to Cooma just to check it out. Next thing I know, I'm hooked up to a baby monitor. Her heart is racing. Something was wrong. Suddenly, I'm being thrown in the back of an ambulance and driven an hour and a half to Canberra in about 45 minutes to have an emergency C-section. My husband was half an hour away. I was left shaking on the operating table while my daughter was taken up to NICU to get the support that she needed. This was how my second daughter arrived in the world, without my husband, under dramatic circumstances that were really scary. We were one of the lucky ones, though. We only had a short stay here in Canberra, supported by the incredible special care nurses and we had psychologists speak to us every day while we were here. But it wasn't until I settled back home, COVID kicked in. I was suddenly separated from my Victorian family, and my birth trauma started to manifest in postnatal rage. I was not in control of my emotions. I was angry, anxious and exhausted. I was yelling at everyone all the time. I didn't like who I was anymore, and I needed help being rural, I knew that my options would be limited. I was shocked, though, to hear that psychologists would only come once a month, and there was a three-month wait in my local town. I did my own research, and thankfully, found the Gidget Foundation. I found their Start Talking program, which is all via telehealth. This allowed me to access the care that I needed in the comfort of my own home, and free of charge, I didn't have to drive into the local psychologist's office and park out the front and have the whole town talk about me. I could do it at home, and all I needed was a GP referral and a mental healthcare plan. There were no barriers to accessing this help that I needed so desperately, and my life and my daughter's lives are changed forever because of it. It allowed me to go on to have my third daughter, Georgie, who's here today. She's my healing baby who taught me to love being a mother for the first time. I share my story today not because it's unique, but actually because it's incredibly common. At Motherland, we know all too well the additional struggles that rural women face accessing the support they need. With over 70 per cent of our audience reporting that they've experienced PNDA, this is three and a half times the national diagnosed average. I'm passionate about advocating for rural mums and making sure that their mental health is taken seriously. So today, I'm incredibly grateful to the Gidget Foundation for their telehealth program, but also for continuing to open up Gidget Houses all over the country, particularly in places like Canberra that act as a regional hub for many rural mums just like me. Thank you again for the opportunity to share my story. I hope this enables more parents to seek the support they need. And thank you to Senator Gallagher and Mr Smith for your continued support of the Gidget Foundation.

JOURNALIST: How much of a difference will this make for other mums? Is this a lifesaving initiative in your eyes?

BROW: Yeah, absolutely. Not just for mums, but also for their children. You know, some of those days, it was really hard to calm myself down. I had to do those things where, you know, you put your baby down in the cot and walk out because I was getting so angry. So, yes, absolutely, it's life saving for the mums, but also for your children as well.

JOURNALIST: And how easy did you find it for your GP to get the care plan and get it set up? Is this a pretty, you know, seamless situation?

BROW: I mean, it's always a challenge to get GP appointments in small towns, but yes, once you've got that appointment, it's you know a half an hour session with your GP to try and get that mental health care plan, and then it's a straight referral. And I just, I still remember speaking to Mandy at the Gidget Foundation to book my first appointment, and the care that she offered me was just second to none. So, it really made me feel supported and it was what I needed, a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel.

SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR WOMEN: Well, it's lovely to be here with the Gidget Foundation, with Arabella, with Kate, Georgie, and with my colleague Dave Smith, whose electorate is going to host this Gidget support service. We're so pleased to be here at this fabulous hospital where we know it serves such a big part of Canberra and the surrounding region for women and parents, new parents, new babies. It's like coming home to this hospital. So, it's great to be here, but really following on from those previous speeches, it's pretty hard. Our job as a government is to look at ways that we can support a whole range of health services and supports for families, and the more we talk about anxiety and depression, particularly for new parents, the better it is. It's often been unspoken about or some sort of shame or stigma attached to it, and over the last 20 years - and it's thanks in large part to non-government organisations, to charities like the Gidget Foundation, who've been able to challenge some of those stereotypes and normalise what is a very prevalent experience for so many parents, new parents, and women who I think have been isolated and left behind in some areas of healthcare. Mark Butler as the Health Minister, we're trying to change that. We've got a lot of focus on women's health in some of the thinking we've done over the last two years, and making sure that we have good supports for mental health. But also, I think, services where we know they're being well utilised, like the Gidget Foundation who has built up, over a long period of time, that reputation. So that we will see, we know, that the service that they offer works. We just heard from Kate how it changed her and her family's life, and it makes sense for government to partner with them and to, you know, support the work that they do. And I look forward - I know, I spoke to Minister Butler this morning, and he was raving about the work that the Gidget Foundation does. And we look forward to continuing that relationship as well. You know, hospitals can't do everything. A lot of health care is delivered in the community by the community, and that's the secret of the success of organisations like the Gidget Foundation. So, we are very pleased to partner with them. We thank them very much for the work that they do and the care they provide and the lives that they change. I'll hand to Dave to say a few words as the local member.

DAVID SMITH MP, MEMBER FOR BEAN: Thanks Katy. And just as we were coming in, Arabella and I were reflecting that we first met over Zoom, as so many of us did during the challenging COVID years. And it's actually such a wonderful thing understanding the extraordinary advocacy of Gidget right across the country and the length they've gone to, to see a centre like this come into being. And that's of course, of the extraordinary courage of the lived experience of advocates like Kate. And I think something that is often forgotten is that Canberra, we don't forget this, is that Canberra is a hub for most of southern New South Wales. Plays such an important role. So actually, delivery of service, whilst it might be physically located in Bean or we could call it Northern Snowies, Kate - but it's actually of importance to our whole region. And it's just one of a suite of issues that the Albanese Government have been working on to deliver better healthcare and to listen to the many incredible voices out there. And so well done to Gidget, well done Kate for your extraordinary advocacy. And we look forward to this House opening, hopefully in 2026 in Tuggeranong.

JOURNALIST: Obviously, funding has been guaranteed until the end of the next sort of financial year. Does the federal government intend, if re-elected, continue that funding into the future?

GALLAGHER: Well, you'll see through the election campaign, and we've already made some extra announcements about investment in healthcare, and that will continue. I mean, for a Labor government, making sure that we've got a healthcare system that works for the community is, you know, part of our DNA. It's central to why we get into politics and what we want to do so making sure we've got a well-funded system, and that includes hospitals, it includes primary care, and it includes, importantly, the work that organisations like the Gidget Foundation do.

JOURNALIST: And this hasn't been the only Gidget House- or perinatal health clinic announced recently. It's been a bit of an election roadshow, you know, kind of rolling out some new swanky facilities?

GALLAGHER: Well, I think it was a commitment we took to the last election, to focus on perinatal mental health and some, you know, extra investment in that area. And so there were twelve announced, which I think seven are up and running. And now this is the kind of the final five, of which we're so pleased there's one in the ACT, but this is right across the country. I think it's more a matter of timing than anything else, getting all of those processes in place about where they should go and working with Gidget about that. But it's an important announcement. And again, I think you know listening to Kate and thank you, Kate - like, it's really brave and really hard to stand up and talk about your own personal experience, particularly when it's been such a difficult time in your life. But we know that that's exactly the sort of advocacy that helps other people who are often going through this feeling like they're on their own. And then they hear something like Kate's story, and they think, oh my gosh, that's me, and they'll reach out. And that's why you know the strongest advocacy comes from those who've gone through it.

JOURNALIST: I know the ACT government was really pushed during the last election for perinatal support services, including more inpatient facilities in the hospital. Have you had any discussions with Minister Stephen-Smith about the federal government maybe helping get those realities into action?

GALLAGHER: Well, we'll always work with the ACT Government on what they need. I mean, again, we recently just invested another $50 million into hospital care through the national healthcare agreement for the ACT alone. So, that's recognition that demand for hospital care is growing. We've got fabulous new hospital facilities here, that always drives a bit of activity. And we'll keep working with them. I mean, it makes a lot of sense. This is why it shouldn't be hospitals or primary care. If your primary care system is working well, it helps the hospital system. If the hospital system is working well, it helps care provided in the community. So, it's in both governments' interests to sort out areas where there is pressure. Part of it, we do through MBS and making sure we've got those better access programs and people are able to get the care. And then for those that need inpatient care, that the facilities are there for that. I think an incredible job has been done on this precinct. I mean, I'm a Canberra girl. I grew up here when the hospital didn't offer a lot of services at all, and most, you know, complex presentations you had to go to New South Wales. You had to go the big smoke of Sydney. We've now, you know, in a region that's got a population here of only under 500,000 we've got a tertiary level, amazing facility here that services a broader region, and, you know, it'll continue to build up its services, particularly where there's things that aren't being done now. Sorry, that was a bit of a long winded answer, I'm going back to my Health Minister days.

JOURNALIST: Would you like to see the ACT Government helping fund this latest House? Would you like to maybe see some local investment for rather than all being on the Federal Government's shoulders?

GALLAGHER: I mean, I sort of don't want to lecture the ACT Government about - like, it's a hard job. I've been in the ACT Government, I get it. Like, there's no shortage of calls on the ACT Budget, just as there's a lot of calls on the Commonwealth Budget. And I really think the key is to make sure that both governments are working together to invest in the services that are needed. Sometimes that'll be shared funding. Sometimes it'll be Commonwealth owned. Sometimes it'll be ACT Government owned. But the ideal at the end is to have a system that works for the community that we're here to serve.

JOURNALIST: And what other kind of announcements can we expect to see from you? Obviously, campaign is well underway, might not be called yet, but it's happening.

GALLAGHER: Yes, there will be an election sometime between now and May the 17th. You can sort of feel it in the air. Look, obviously, you know, we're all here as local members. We care deeply about our city, and we want to make sure and through our advocacy that Canberra gets fair recognition through the federal campaign. For too many campaigns, that wasn't the case. We'd missed out on a lot, whether it be infrastructure or services. And obviously, the biggest threat to Canberra is the threat to cut 36,000 jobs from the public service, because that will decimate this town. It will decimate small business. It will decimate, you know, families, thousands of families, kids going to school. I mean, it's a serious threat. So, we'll have a positive agenda, but we'll also be defending Canberra's right to, you know, public servants and for jobs in this city.

JOURNALIST: Can we expect any big cash splashes?

GALLAGHER: Well, all I'll say is that between Dave, Alicia, Andrew and I, you know, we've been working hard on what an election offering might look like for here in Canberra. Obviously, some of those big announcements to date, whether it be HECS relief or investments in Medicare, will obviously matter to people here. So that's across the board, but there'll also be obviously some, you know, local investments that we want to see made here and we think that the government's got a responsibility to do.

JOURNALIST: Are you conscious about striking the right balance so that you don't get, you know, accused by Dutton and the Opposition that, you know, you're pork barrelling for Canberra. I mean, what's that balance like?

GALLAGHER: Look, well, there's a difference, I think, in, you know - Peter Dutton and the former government were experts in pork barrelling. There's a difference between, I think, the approach they took and going to an election and saying, this is what we'd like to do in our city, and letting people vote on it. And so, you'll see us go forward with a very strong agenda for Canberra. The balance, I think, that needs to be made is, you know, what room is there in the Budget? And how do you allocate those resources? And for Labor, it's things like infrastructure, you know, HECS debt reduction, it's Medicare relief, it's all of those sorts of things. It's building more houses, you know. And I guess that contrasts with what Mr Dutton is offering, which is nuclear power stations and cutting the public service by 36,000.

JOURNALIST: Is it, in some ways, a happy coincidence that you get to announce this facility today, so close to the election when others have been done in the past?

GALLAGHER: Well, again, I think that's really a timing thing. We've had, obviously, there's been a procurement process, you know, processes to go through the Department of Health. As far as I know, this was the earliest it could have been announced. We're very keen to ensure that people are aware this is coming, that we are supporting the work of the Gidget Foundation, and that we look forward to heading down south when the centre opens.

JOURNALIST: And last question, it's a race between you and Senator Pocock. Do you think it helps that you do get to come out here and kind of wave these big, fancy money announcements, and, you know, centre announcements, when he can't?

GALLAGHER: Look, I mean, I don't think you'd have to say that Senator Pocock doesn't get a lot of coverage. I think he gets a reasonable amount of coverage, from my assessment. And look, you know, we're in government, so we take responsibility for a whole range of things. So, I think there's swings and roundabouts here. I think the Senate race will be very close. It's, in a sense, a marginal race here for the Senate seat. And you know, I'll be out hard campaigning. I'm sure Senator Pocock will, but we've got a strong record that we've delivered with Dave, Alicia, Andrew and I, and we'll be campaigning on that, plus what we want to offer going forward.

JOURNALIST: Tuggeranong is often the Forgotten Valley. Is it nice that the tender process has worked out that the, you know, facility will be down south in Tuggers?

DAVID SMITH: Look, it's great it'll be in Tuggeranong, but it will be servicing the whole the whole of the ACT community. It's not the first announcement around Tuggeranong either. I think a couple of weeks ago, Assistant Minister McBride was talking about the new mental health Medicare clinics that will also be opening in Greenway, probably in the next couple of months. And look, we know there's a need right across right across our region. So, it's definitely welcome, but it's welcome I think right across Canberra.