Rachel Spencer Bronnie Taylor, MLC, Minister for Mental Health, Regional Youth and Women, will shortly launch New South Wales health's IDMH hubs. So, minister, most people are no doubt, impressed with your role in politics and your role as a minister, but Ella was more impressed with your career before politics.Ella Darling You had worked for 20 years as a nurse for cancer and client care. You have took the people you have about inside out of healthcare, and people need help with mental health. Thank you for the hard work and being here today. Thank you Bronnie.
The Hon Bronnie Taylor, MLC, Minister for Mental Health, Regional Youth and Women Thank you very much, Ella, for that very warm welcome, and can I just say I just think you are doing a fabulous job as the MC and I think we should all give you a round of applause. It's been an absolute delight to meet you this morning, I think you're one of those people who just sprinkle a little bit of magic dust wherever you go, is what I imagine. Uncle Allen, I think is gone, but thank you very much, give a very warm welcome to country, I too, acknowledge elders past and present, and I'm very proud to be here in Gadigal land. Look, what a great day today is, to be able to be here to launch this, but this is not my work, this is your work, this is the people that have worked tirelessly within these organizations to make sure that today happens. For me, when I read about what you've done, it just makes my heart sing, because I love the fact that you talk about multidisciplinary care. I love the fact that you talk about families and carers and how important they are, and of course the person is at the centre of your care, of course, I get in trouble as a patient, as a consumer, as a client, but that person that needs you, of course, that's the centre of your care. But what you're acknowledging here today is that the family's important. That the carers are important. And if we're unable to support those people, we can't actually support the person that we're tasked to do, so I just think this is fantastic, I'm a big, big fan of multidisciplinary care, and that's why sometimes I find myself in the privileged position that I am, of setting policy, that when people either just talk about nursing, which I was, and I'm a really proud ex nurse, and thank you so much, Ella, and actually the thing is, ladies and gentlemen, I'm re registered because of COVID, another great thing about COVID, so Gareth, I'll be really happy to give you any injections, or anything you might require. And it'd be so lovely to have you here, too, Gareth, you are a ray of sunshine at all times, and it's wonderful to have you here with us today, and I know how passionate you are about this space.
But can I just say that we know, we have demonstrated evidence that it's multidisciplinary care that works. No profession has an ownership, no profession can work on its own. When we work together, and we make that person the centre of our care, we do great things. And that's exactly what you've done here today. Can I also say, that there are not many days in my office where I do not get an email of a story about someone that this service is absolutely going to help. I think we can all acknowledge that there sometimes is a gap, we know that, but you know what? You've done something about it. You've come here, you've worked really hard, you've put really good policy in place, the government's facilitated that funding, they've back that in, but they've only done that because of the work that you've done. This is a really big need this will change lives, and this will help lives. This will make sure that families can function, this service will make sure that communities can thrive. So it is my great pleasure to be able to launch this here today, but please know, to each and every one of you, I'm acutely aware this is your work, I honour you, I salute you, and it gives me a great privilege as the minister for mental health in the state of New South Wales to be able to launch this very important service here today. Congratulations to you all.Rachel Spencer Thank you Bronnie for your kind words to Ella and to the team, and to everyone who works in this space, your passion in healthcare and mental health is really evident and you're right, this work does save lives, and as Ella said earlier, it makes lives better. So, next we invite minister Gareth Ward, MP. Gareth holds many titles, and I guess the one we consider particularly important is the one for ministers, families and communities and disability services, thank you Gareth.The Hon Gareth Ward, MP, Minister for Families, Communities and Disability Services Thanks very much, Rachel and Ella well done as well, too, and I join Bronnie in congratulating the great work you're doing. Can I also acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet and pay my respects to elders' past and present and thank Uncle Alan, who was with us earlier for that wonderful welcome to country. Can I also welcome some special guests, can I obviously pay a special tribute to my wonderful friend, but also my colleague, the minister to mental health, Bronnie Taylor at regional youth and women, and who does an outstanding job and you'd see from that address how genuinely passionate Bronnie is in this space and that's why, not only is she shared by, but she's loved by her sector, who I know she works so closely with.
Can I also acknowledge Julian Trollor from the University of New South Wales? Can I also acknowledge the wonderful Ms. Carmel Tebbutt, who I see in the crowd, who of course is a predecessor in the facts portfolio, the second best facts minister the state's had, we all know that Brad Hazzard is the best facts minister the state's had. Just ask him, he'll tell you. But it's wonderful to see you here as well, and of course everyone that's joining us here today in support of people with them, leave experience or disability, but also intellectual disability in particular. As minister of disability services and indeed, the first minister for disability, to have a disability, one of the things that keeps me working is the importance of this particular portfolio and of course the responsibility of ensuring that we have in inclusive state, one that encourages everyone to achieve its full potential. We know that about 20% of the population has at least some form of disability in our state. In New South Wales today, the NDIS is supporting 138,000 participants in our state. With 85,000 of these never having received a specialist disability service before. Think about how disability services and supports have changed even in the last 10 years. This service, this scheme, which the like of which does not exist anywhere else in the world, and I think that says a lot about this great country, and what we, as Australians prioritize. This is enabling people to exercise choice and control over the services they receive and over their lives and how they live them. We know that, as of December 2020, there are almost 29,000 NDIS participants in New South Wales, with an intellectual disability. And almost 13,000 with a primary psychological disability, many of whom have comorbidities.
Clearly there is need for tailored evidence-based care for people with intellectual disability and complex mental health problems. That's why I'm honoured to be invited to be with you today and launch these critical initiatives that demonstrate the value of collaboration and good practice in meeting the needs of vulnerable and complex populations. The establishment of these two mental health hubs, where multidisciplinary teams can customize treatments for people with intellectual disability is a first in our state. It's another demonstration of our government's commitment to ensuring the needs of people with disabilities are met. 2020 was a year that drove home to all of us how vital it is to address mental wellbeing of our community as a hole, and I was talking with a few people about that today before we kicked off this morning and I'm proud to be part of a government that is committed to ensuring the recovery of the economy, but also the wellbeing of our community.
The most recent state budget committed 70 million dollars for upscaling mentoring and job matching for people working in the care economy to improve recruitment and retention of care workers and to be an enabler to encourage people to come into this sector and be part of the NDIS and provide supports critical to people with disabilities. This initiative will boost a number of jobs in the disability sector generally, but with a particular component focused on sector supports for people with psychological disability. We know that the NDIS is meant to have about 16% of people and participants that have a psycho-social disability. At the moment, it's about 9%, so we're still a long way from where we need to be, and obviously having the right mechanisms in place to allow for access an inclusion to ensure that it's easier to get into the scheme for those with psycho-social needs is something that we must address to ensure that all people, particularly those with psycho-social needs can have them met through this scheme. Thank again for inviting me to be part of this event today, and congratulations to everyone who's worked so hard to get to this point, I know that there's been a lot of work that's gone into this, and I'm sure that it's going to be a real game changer for people with intellectual needs, thank you.
