Australia’s national plan to improve mental health and prevent suicide is “not fit for purpose” and needs to be re-written, according to a new report by the Productivity Commission.<\/p>\n
The commission has been reviewing the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement which sets out the shared commitments between the federal government and state and territory governments to improve the mental health of Australians.<\/p>\n
The commission has now released an interim report which revealed the national agreement was “fundamentally flawed” and made no real improvements to the mental health system since it was signed in 2022.<\/p>\n
The agreement aims to:<\/strong><\/p>\n It aims to meet these objective by funding services such as:<\/strong><\/p>\n Commissioner Angela Jackson said major change would be impossible under the current agreement as its outcomes, such as “reforming the mental health system” were too broad and not easily measurable.<\/p>\n “Unfortunately what we’ve found is there are lofty ambitions, but the actions made under the agreement were never going to deliver those objectives,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n she said.<\/p>\n Australia is facing a mental health crisis as more people need care for more complex conditions but can’t get the help they need due to workforce shortages and a lack of mental health beds in hospitals.<\/p>\n Measures of mental health and suicide rates have not improved in recent years, according to the report.<\/p>\n More troubling, the suicide rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people worsened between 2018 and 2023.<\/p>\n Co-commissioner and Gungarri man Selwyn Button said there were a raft of initiatives that weren’t connected to each other, thus creating a fragmented system, and early intervention to prevent suicide needed improving.<\/p>\n “There is still stigma attached with respect to having conversations with a clinician about suicide,” he said.<\/p>\n Public responses submitted to the Commission:<\/p>\n The commission said the agreement made certain commitments but didn’t dedicate funding to achieve those aims.<\/p>\n For example, it sets out a strategy to close the health gap for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people but there was no specific funding allocated to do this.<\/p>\n “This really needs to be prioritised \u2026 and we have the expertise, we just need to get the right people at the table,” Mr Button said.<\/p>\n Dr Clinton Schultz, a Gamilaroi man and director of First Nations strategy at the Black Dog Institute said any national agreement needed to link research to the real world.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We’re generating strong evidence around what works \u2013 particularly in novel treatments \u2014 but there’s still no mechanism to bring that innovation into the public system. Until we bridge these gaps, we’ll keep seeing missed opportunities to support our mob in meaningful ways.”<\/p>\n Ms Jackson said another key priority was getting funding for psychosocial support for people who don’t qualify for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).<\/p>\n Psychosocial support is non-clinical help including connecting people with the right services and building daily living skills.<\/p>\n Funding for that was withdrawn after the NDIS was introduced, which left around 500,000 people without support.<\/p>\n “Obviously the NDIS has led to significant change for people with disability but for those outside the scheme there’s been a real reduction in supports and this is a matter of urgency,” Ms Jackson said.<\/p>\n\n
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