Family 'failed' by WA's mental health system moves interstate

Family forced to move interstate due to lack of mental health care in WA's South West Thu 30 Jul 2026 at 7:56am In short: A West Australian family says a lack of available mental health support for their daughter forced them to move to Victoria. Simone Meyer says her daughter was failed by services in Perth and the South West. What's next? The WA government has announced a new regional youth acute mental health care team and six new regional mental health beds to reduce pressure on available services. A West Australian mother says she was forced to move interstate to get adequate mental health care for her daughter after she was failed by the state's health system. Simone Meyer spent 60 hours across emergency departments in two Perth hospitals with her daughter Indi in November last year. The 16-year-old needed care for complex mental health issues, including autism, OCD and depression. The Margaret River mother said the family could not access adequate support services locally, so were forced to make the 270 kilometre trip to Perth. "The local support services that we were referred to, we didn't think, get or feel like we received good enough care," she said. "It just felt like [they] got you in, risk managed you, once you were sort of classed as non-risk, off you went again." Struggles in Perth Indi waited outside the emergency departments at Fiona Stanley and Joondalup hospitals for hours in the cold, as she could not cope with the loud noises in ED. When she was eventually admitted to Joondalup, a bed did not become available. The family left, returned home and began thinking about interstate options. "We knew we definitely couldn't stay in the South West," Ms Meyer said. "We'd already experienced the emergency departments in Perth, so there was no way we were going to do that again." The family moved to Albury-Wodonga in December and have not looked back. "There is so much more support over here, there's just there's so many to choose from," she said. "Luckily we haven't needed the hospital because the support services outside have been so good." New mental health beds, crisis team The family's story reflects the pressure on WA's mental health system, particularly in communities outside Perth. The state government apologised last month after a 17-year-old Busselton girl was forced to wait five days in Busselton Hospital's emergency department for an acute mental health bed. On Wednesday, Health Minister Meredith Hammat announced a number of fast-tracked improvements to the region's mental health services, including a new "observation area" with six 72-hour mental health beds at Bunbury Regional Hospital. Ms Hammat said the beds provided more appropriate options for people needing urgent mental health care. "It allows people who might otherwise have to wait in an emergency department to come through into this purpose built area and be seen by multi-disciplinary teams," she said. The move partially addresses an earlier reduction in mental health beds at the hospital from 23 to 11 in August last year, despite an ongoing $470 million redevelopment of the wider hospital. A new youth acute response team will also now be available in regional areas five days a week during office hours. The team will provide mental health treatment outside hospital settings, including at home and in the community. "What we ultimately want to achieve is a situation where people don't need to be admitted to these formal care environments," Ms Hammat said. Mixed response from community For Busselton-based mental health support service Lamp, the increased acute care is welcome. But chief executive Jesse Malseed said other services also needed to be bolstered. "With more beds in the region, there are potentially more people being referred to community organisations that aren't receiving an increase in funding or capacity," he said. Shadow Health Minister Libby Mettam said the Cook government's efforts to improve mental health services for children and young people had been unacceptably slow, despite a 2021 promise to overhaul the system. "It is welcome that this service will go to families and individuals in their homes, because emergency departments are simply not suitable for youth that are experiencing mental health distress," Ms Mettam, Bussselton's local MP, said. "Outside of Bunbury we know that the city of Busselton and other regional towns have been completely neglected when it comes to supporting youth mental health." "We are increasingly seeing emergency departments across the region bear the brunt of the mental health crisis." Ms Meyer said the acute response team could have been a great help to her daughter. "It is definitely something we would have used," she said. Loading...