Greens support Buttery bid to double services
Candidate for The Greens in Richmond, Joe Ebono, offered his support for
The Buttery in its attempt to raise $15 million to double its capacity as a
therapeutic community treating drug addiction.
“There is an urgent need to funding mental health and substance abuse in
Northern NSW but the major parties candidates are refusing to commit to
specific projects,” he said.
“If elected to represent Richmond, I commit to using the full leverage of
The Greens in both houses of parliament to get the Federal component of the
funding requested by the Buttery.”
The Buttery has a 70% success rate treating addicts through its residential program and plans to increase the number of beds available from 30 to 60.
“This will enable The Buttery to increase the number of people it treats each year from 110 to 220,” said Barry Evans, executive director of The Buttery.
The Greens policies on mental health and substance abuse focus on harm prevention and wellness as more cost effective forms of treatment than acute care.
“The Buttery is a perfect example of how well practices that treat the whole person can be. This is exactly the sort of program that The Greens want to promote on a national level,” he said.
“The major parties are trapped in support for corporate medicine. Pharmaceuticals, GP superclinics and major hospitals are expensive bandaids that treat people after they have become unwell. We need community solutions that provide alternative ways to support healthy people remain well,” he said.
The Greens support organisations like the Maternity Coalition who are struggling against government regulations designed to force people into acute care.
“The corporatisation of health and wellness has been a long term campaign across the world. Unfortunately, The Greens are the only party working with people, especially women, attempting to preserve the right for people to choose their pathways to wellness.”
Joe Ebono will speak at the Maternity Coalition meeting in Mullumbimby on Friday August 20.
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