Community service organisations and unions are worried northern mental health services will struggle to meet demand in the wake of Holden’s closure, amid funding cuts to social services in the Adelaide’s north.

Not-for-profit organisations operating in the northern suburbs said demand for mental health and social services was increasing, but funding for those services was not keeping pace.

Uniting Communities spokesperson Mark Henley told InDaily the loss of at least 3000 jobs in the north by 2017 was already having an impact on the mental health, relationships counselling and legal aid services provided by his organisation.

“You would expect an increase in demand for a range of community support services as a result of (the) number of jobs being lost,” he said.

“Financial stress leads to increases in relationship stress. (That) leads to issues with drugs, alcohol, mental health issues.

“Demand for services, whether you’re talking financial counselling or mental health or relationship counselling … is increasing.

“As an agency, we’ve got this double whammy of funding for some of the key service areas being cut whilst demand for those services increases.

“We’re going to do whatever we can to cope as best we can with the expected increase in demand for services.

“Less staff, more demand; it just gets harder and harder all the time. How well we cope, we can’t be sure.”

Mental Health Coalition president Paul Senior said the ability of services to meet growing demand would turn on the community’s ability to provide alternative employment for former Holden workers.

“It is apparent that with the growing number of people experiencing unemployment there is a growing demand for a range of emergency relief supports,” he said.

“As a community, our capacity to find alternate economic activities for those impacted by the closing of (Holden) will be the telling factor on whether we are confronted with a range of emerging mental health needs”.

According to the State Budget, the Government is expecting to spend $8 million less on Northern Adelaide health services in 2015-16 than was spent in 2014-15.

The Government has also forecast a reduction of nearly 50 staff from the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network (NALHN) during the current financial year.

However, NALHN went nearly $10 million over budget during the last financial year, and employed nearly 70 more full-time equivalent staff than was budgeted for.

Anglicare SA acting chief executive officer Beth Davidson-Park told InDaily her organisation was also concerned. 

“The fact that we are already seeing an increase in demand, and evidence that the current services in the north have not been able to keep up with this demand, worries us,” she said.

Davidson-Park said Anglicare’s Personal Helpers and Mentors program, which caters for people with mental illness, was “currently fully subscribed and demand consistently outstrips AnglicareSA’s ability to provide services”.

However, she said a collaboration between non-government and government service agencies called Beyond Auto was working to help individuals and families impacted by Holden’s closure.

A spokesperson for SA Health said the State Government provided “a number of community, hospital-based and crisis services for people experiencing mental health issues in the northern suburbs, as well as counselling, assessment and referrals where appropriate for people with alcohol and drug related issues through the Drug and Alcohol Services of South Australia”.

“We will monitor demand for these services over the coming months and years and resources will be allocated where they’re needed.”

SA Health did not respond to questions about specific funding for mental health services in the north as a response to Holden’s closure.

Public Service Association (PSA) general secretary Neville Kitchin sent a letter to Health Minister Jack Snelling about the issue in May.

“PSA members have expressed concerns over the expected increases in demand for mental health services in the Northern Adelaide,” he writes.

“PSA members are also concerned that no additional funding has yet been made available from the State Government to provide further resourcing to meet the expected rise in service demand.

“The current resourcing is not sufficient to meet current patient demand.

“For example, the North-Eastern Mental Health Adult Community Sector is still missing a second team.

“The PSA requests that clarification be provided as to what additional funding, if any, will be provided to (the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network) to assist the northern community with the health consequences arising from the Holden closure.”

A PSA spokesperson said the union had not received a response to the letter.