MPs' offices serve as makeshift mental health clinics as crisis bites Barwon MP Roy Butler claims

Member for Barwon Roy Butler told parliament this week that mental health condition will strike about one in four people at some point in their lives.

He told the Leader on Thursday that his office gets calls from people who turn out to have a mental health problem about four or five times in an average week.

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"What tends to happen ... we get stuck on the phone on a totally unrelated issue," he said.

"They might have a problem with a fence that adjoins a national park, say. But what comes out in the discussion, as my staff or I are speaking with them, is that clearly there's more going on and actually they're quite depressed.

"What we try and do without embarrassing anyone, or putting any pressure on anyone, is try and connect them with someone who can help them with that."

As a former drug and alcohol counsellor, the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers (SFF) MP is better placed than most to be able to talk people down.

But the system is straining under the pressure of a coronavirus-boosted caseload, he said, and services like Tamworth's Banksia unit need more capacity to cater to increased demand.

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"There is demand for more child and adolescent mental health services across the State," he told parliament on Wednesday.

"The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service based in Orange services five local health districts and 86 per cent of the State and routinely runs at 100 per cent capacity, with many people waiting to access this acute service."

Mr Butler was one of eight MPs who spoke on a parliamentary debate sponsored by fellow SFF MP Philip Donato calling for change.

Mr Donato condemned what he said was a policy of successive governments to slowly yet steadily withdraw medical services from country towns, centralising them in metropolitan areas.

"Despite investment from the government, the private sector and the community, many people living with mental health conditions cannot get the support they need and mental health-related emergency department presentations continue to rise," Mr Butler said.

"For people living in the bush, the difficulty in accessing mental health care is only compounded by the tyranny of distance."

The debate comes after the state government this week announced a $130 million roadmap to mental health recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

The funding boost will finance the largest mental health training program ever undertaken, arming 275,000 regular people with the ability to respond to the first signs of a mental health problem.

It will also provide more appointments for psychology and psychiatry services.

Nationals MP for Cootamundra Steph Cooke told parliament the "landmark" funding package would help people in rural and metropolitan NSW.

"It will go a long way towards meeting the increased demand for mental health services right now," she said.

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"But it is also about setting up the state for the long term, in terms of educating people, providing support and maintaining facilities in communities.

"Children and teenagers requiring specialist mental health care will benefit from a funding package that will deploy 25 safeguard child and adolescent mental health response teams across regional New South Wales. The funding for that package is $109.5 million over four years."

Mr Butler said funding announcements were meaningless if they didn't turn into outcomes, but praised the government for at least taking note of the problem.

"They're certainly talking of the issue," he said.

Mr Donato's motion passed on the voices, without the need for a vote.

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