Blacktown Hospital Mental Health Services at Breaking Point: A Community Roundtable. Have Your Say and Hear from Experts

True story: someone we’ll call John urgently needed psychiatric care. There was nowhere he could go except the Blacktown Hospital Emergency Department. He waited for about 12 hours and was then discharged without any arrangement for follow-up care. Guess what: his condition did not improve, and he was back at the ED a few days later.

Have you a similar true story that you’d like to share? Would you like to meet with other people who’re affected by the breakdown of mental health services at Blacktown Hospital? Would you like to understand more deeply what’s gone wrong and how the whole system of mental healthcare in the Blacktown and Mount Druitt areas could be transformed? 

Then come to our community roundtable on the evening of Wednesday 10 June and here from:

• Community members with lived experience as carers, consumers, staff, GPs etc. 
• Dr Pramudie Gunaratne, CEO of the Australian Society of Psychiatrists
• Dr Sonia Kumar, Psychiatrist, Youth Enhanced Support Service (YESS), Western Sydney
• Dr Amanda Cohn MLC, Greens NSW Spokesperson for Mental Health

DOORS OPEN: 6.15 p.m. for mingling, light refreshments and more

MAIN EVENT: 7.00 p.m. sharp to 8.30 p.m.

REGISTRATION IS ESSENTIAL.

Also, we invite consumers, carers, providers, mental health social workers, etc. to share their experiences of mental health services at Blacktown Hospital at the meeting or in writing. Please email your expression of interest to us at greens.blacktown@gmail.com.

This event is fully wheelchair accessible. Max Webber Function Centre is inside Blacktown Library and there is a ramp from Alpha Street and has lift access.

Please contact the event organiser with any accessibility requests as early as possible so that suitable arrangements can be discussed and organised where possible. 

You can also support the Blacktown Greens by donating here: https://greens.org.au/nsw/donateblacktown

If you are under 18, your parent or guardian will need to contact the event organiser directly to let them know there will be someone under 18 attending.