WOKE program gets ACT government support but long-term funding uncertain

The WOKE program, run by the University of Canberra clinical psychology masters students and educators, discovered federal funding would end in June despite strong clinical outcomes for young people experiencing self-harming behaviour, suicidal ideation and early signs of borderline personality disorder.

ACT Mental Health Minister Emma Davidson said on Tuesday she had written to the federal Health Minister Mark Butler to continue funding for the WOKE and the Catholic Care Stepping Stones programs.

"This is outrageous that we would be in a situation where these programs don't have a pathway to permanent, ongoing funding," Ms Davidson said.

"We will do whatever we have to do to make sure that they can continue, but we'd really like to work with the Commonwealth on this."

The upcoming ACT budget will include $204,000 for WOKE and $445,208 for Stepping Stones in the 2023/24 financial year.

The Mental Health Minister said there had been no evaluation of the programs regarding what resources would be required to keep them operating.

Mr Butler was contacted for comment.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Aged Care said questions about ongoing funding should be raised with the Capital Health Network, which is funded by the Commonwealth government.

"The Commonwealth is working with the ACT bovernment under the Bilateral Schedule on Mental Health and Suicide Prevention to support improved mental health and suicide prevention outcomes for all people in the ACT through collaborative efforts and funding to address gaps in mental health and suicide prevention," the spokesperson said.

"This includes over $18.5 million in co-funding between the Commonwealth and ACT governments to invest in child mental health and wellbeing, through the establishment of a Head to Health Kids Hub for children 0-12 years, and enhancement and integration of youth mental health services."

The spokesperson said the WOKE program was evaluated with a report completed in December 2021 but a formal evaluation had not been done for the Stepping Stones program.

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The WOKE program clinical lead Dean Buckmaster said he and the team were grateful for some funding to keep going while they looked at securing long-term, sustainable funding.

"I think it's looking like we'll get enough from the ACT government to barely keep us going. But we will need more just to function as we are. It's not enough," Dr Buckmaster said.

"We really need to get something extra to keep us going for the next 12 months if we want to do what we have been doing like we've been doing it."

The dialectical behaviour therapy program puts clients and their parents through a 14-week program where they do group workshops and one-on-one therapy to learn coping strategies to manage their emotions and problems.

Dr Buckmaster said an evaluation was done of the program which proved that it worked.

"To build something, implement it and then for it to have really, really good clinical outcomes and then to take it away seems cruel to me," he said.

"It is confounding as to why a relatively affordable program like ours, it does have such a big impact and is a really good exemplar of what can be done therapeutically in this space was unable to be funded long term given how successful the pilot was. I mean, ... I think that's just on face value really confusing."

The program organisers didn't know that the funding was going to be running out until February this year. There are more than 70 young people on the waitlist for the program.

Dr Buckmaster has been looking at all options for finding at least $300,000 per year, including philanthropy and corporate sponsorship.

"We just want to be able to keep providing this to the community and we just really want to find a sustainable funding source so we don't kind of have to go through this too often," he said.

"We'll have to make decisions about letting referrers know what's happening with the program long term and we might have to pause but hopefully it won't come to that."

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