Lesley Russell and Robert Wells, of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy, University of Sydney/Australian National University, write:
“The communiqué from the most recent meeting of the Australian Health Ministers Conference on March 5 announced the launch of Australia’s new National Mental Health Policy 2008, describing it as representing ‘a renewed commitment by all governments to the continual improvement of Australia’s mental health system’.
The communiqué also noted that ‘Ministers agreed that the revised National Mental Health Policy will provide the basis for the development of the Fourth [National Mental Health] Plan.’
That’s the way it should be – except for two major problems.
First, the mental health community has continually expressed concerns over the policy document, which looks pretty much like the previous policies at a time when a revitalized approach is clearly needed.
And second, the National Health Policy was released just one day before the national consultation period on the Fourth National Mental Health Plan was due to finish.
That makes for very limited informed debate.
An additional limitation is imposed by the fact that the evaluation of the Third National Mental Health Plan has yet to be released.
While it’s always nice to see timelines being met, this should not come at the expense of substantive reform, due consideration of the successes and failures of the past, and meaningful consultation with the stakeholders.
The sad fact is that each successive National Mental Health Plan has become increasing irrelevant as a driver for planning, funding and reform.”
As co-author of the 1996 National Standards for Mental Health and from 40 years of involvement in mental health services, I totally agree.
The National Mental Health Policy & subsequent Discussion Paper on the 4th National Mental Health Plan do not amount to real policies, plans or strategies that will change or reform mental health services in Australia. As discussion papers, they set out motherhood statements which will hardly evoke any disagreement. But will any of these documents bring about change for the better in Australia? NO!
The narrative in the documents may well be of interest, referring to and recognising various disadvantaged groups but there is nothing in the Plan that will add to reform of services across the country – it does not contain objectives, outcomes, timelines, resources and projected evaluation.
The 4th Plan is not based on, nor does it even mention, the evaluation of the 3rd Plan. Was there an evaluation of the 3th plan? We know that there was one, so how was the 4th plan and the 2008 policy developed from this evaluation?
Planning? There is no point in planning if the Government does not care enough about the problem to properly resource it.