State of the Nation - Mental Health
State of the Nation’s Mental Health.
Any serious discussion of the key public policy issues in Australia over the last five years cannot overlook the almost continuous discourse surrounding mental health services, public funding and service delivery. There are several reasons for this.
First, Australians are now more informed on mental illnesses and the consequences of falling to provide services for those with a medical need. The work of beyondblue, headspace, SANE Australia and The Inspire Foundation (to name a critical few) has significantly increased awareness and understanding. Second, on an almost daily basis there are national media reports of mental health service failures and inadequacies. This combined with regular adverse reports from credible sources including Ombudsman’s Offices, Auditor Generals, providers, researchers and so on, paint a picture of a system in perpetual crisis. This in turn feeds the public discourse and drives the political engagement around policy responses.
Responding to this, the Rudd Opposition in 2007 and later Government committed itself on numerous occasions to reform: “we are committed to meaningful reform that will improve outcomes for people who have a mental illness or are at risk of mental illness, their families, carers and the community”[].
Australians appear to rate the provision of mental health services as a major challenge for the nation. An international survey conducted by Kings College London in late 2010 [] showed the utmost importance placed on the issue of mental health by Australians, who went as far as to rank the issue as the third most significant challenging facing this country, well ahead of other nations and second only to the economy and global warming.
As we enter the last year of the second term of the Rudd-Gillard Governments, mental health remains very much ‘unfinished policy business’. This is despite Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s bold commitment in the election campaign in 2010 to make
Any serious discussion of the key public policy issues in Australia over the last five years cannot overlook the almost continuous discourse surrounding mental health services, public funding and service delivery. There are several reasons for this.
First, Australians are now more informed on mental illnesses and the consequences of falling to provide services for those with a medical need. The work of beyondblue, headspace, SANE Australia and The Inspire Foundation (to name a critical few) has significantly increased awareness and understanding. Second, on an almost daily basis there are national media reports of mental health service failures and inadequacies. This combined with regular adverse reports from credible sources including Ombudsman’s Offices, Auditor Generals, providers, researchers and so on, paint a picture of a system in perpetual crisis. This in turn feeds the public discourse and drives the political engagement around policy responses.
Responding to this, the Rudd Opposition in 2007 and later Government committed itself on numerous occasions to reform: “we are committed to meaningful reform that will improve outcomes for people who have a mental illness or are at risk of mental illness, their families, carers and the community”[].
Australians appear to rate the provision of mental health services as a major challenge for the nation. An international survey conducted by Kings College London in late 2010 [] showed the utmost importance placed on the issue of mental health by Australians, who went as far as to rank the issue as the third most significant challenging facing this country, well ahead of other nations and second only to the economy and global warming.
As we enter the last year of the second term of the Rudd-Gillard Governments, mental health remains very much ‘unfinished policy business’. This is despite Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s bold commitment in the election campaign in 2010 to make