The first impressions and initial responses to the new federal reforms announced yesterday of the mental health system are all sound and enthusiastic and suggest that finally we will get some satisfaction and sanity into a system that has been sick for a long time.
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Various experts from the field have lauded the Health Minister Sussan Ley’s structural reform strategies – describing them as a defining moment for mental health care, for being courageous and gutsy.
Former reformist politician and now beyondblue chairman Jeff Kennett says the reforms will dismantle a badly-integrated system in favour of building a regional one that works for people closer to home, wherever they live in Australia.
He says the three million people who at any one time have depression or anxiety, and the hundreds of people who attempt to take their lives or the seven who die by suicide every day in Australia – and their families – will be the true recipients of a system built on giving them bang for buck.
It would appear that a focus on regional planning and delivery is broadly what individuals and families have been demanding, and what the National Mental Health Commission has recommended.
The government is likely to redirect funds to the Primary Health Networks because they are best placed to understand local needs, and to deliver and monitor performance and outcomes for their communities.
Let’s hope they get the level of support they will need to adjust to increased responsibilities.
Anyone who has had any experience of the mental health system in regional and rural areas will attest to the vagaries of a system that has not in all honesty served its human health clients with individualised care in all cases.
In many instances it has been a one-size-is-supposed-to-fit-all.
In more than any acceptable numbers, it has been a system inadequate to deal with the scourge of mental health issues and the unacceptable suicide rates we have seen, especially among those on the land and our young in our towns.
Isolation in country areas has compounded the isolation of those battling mental issues.
In that way, the promised new digital pathways and gateways will have a major impact on our country cousins.
The stepped-care approach in the reforms also promises linkages for parents of vulnerable kids who can get caught in a system with little progress or connected services.