Shadow Minister for Mental Health Ed Cocks has raised significant concerns about the state of the mental health system in the ACT following another escape by a patient from a mental health facility.

This latest escape comes just weeks after the release of a report triggered by the stabbing of ANU students by a patient who had escaped from the ACT mental health system.

ACT Police have advised they are now searching for a man who escaped from the Adult Mental Health Unit where it is understood he was undergoing a mental health assessment on referral from the ACT Magistrates court.

Mr Cocks said the incident showed worrying echoes of the problems highlighted in the recent report by the former Chief Psychiatrist, and the Mental Health Minister must answer questions to ease legitimate concerns of Canberrans about the mental health system.

“Canberrans deserve to know how, after every other failure by this Minister, this has been allowed to happen again? Mr Cocks said.

“The Minister also needs to explain why this individual was not being assessed in the secure mental health facility? Why did it once again take so long to alert the community? Was there at any stage any consideration of the potential safety risks to the community of the individual?”

Mr Cocks said the lessons from the former chief psychiatrist’s report needed to be considered more broadly than just leave decisions.

“This incident seems to point to the same failures that were identified in the report by the former Chief Psychiatrist.

“Canberrans deserve to be safe, feel safe and they deserve a mental health system that helps people recover and ensure community safety.

“In less than 18 months, under this Minister, the mental health system has seen:

• The violent killing of a man admitted to the Adult Mental Health Unit
• disastrous handling of multiple patient information beaches
• allegations of patients absconding from care and returning intoxicated
• the stabbing of two young women by a patient who had been given leave from the mental health unit; and
• a secret review into the toxic and dysfunctional office of the Minister herself.

“We are yet to receive any detail about any of these incidents, and the Minister seems to have no intention of telling Canberrans what is going on.

"The longer the Minister persists in hiding details behind technicalities the more it will undermine trust in Canberra’s mental health system,” Mr Cocks concluded.