Alison Barrett writes:
Nearly 500,000 Australians aged 12 to 64 years with moderate to severe mental illness are not receiving the psychosocial support they need, according to an analysis released last week.
The findings highlight the “need to improve access, advocacy and awareness in relation to psychosocial supports”, according to federal, state and territory Health and Mental Health Ministers, who met last Friday to discuss key issues affecting Australia’s mental health system.
They had been urged by leading mental health groups to release the analysis and recommend to National Cabinet a co-funding agreement to fully address unmet need for psychosocial supports.
The ‘analysis of unmet need for psychosocial supports outside of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)’ was undertaken by independent consulting service, Health Policy Analysis, part of the Nous Group as of July 2024, in response to recommendations in the Productivity Commission’s 2020 Inquiry into Mental Health.
The Productivity Commission found that the transition to the NDIS “appeared to have left a significant gap in service provision” for many people with psychosocial support needs.
Psychosocial support services are important for supporting people with moderate to severe mental illness to live independently and safely in the community. They assist people with mental illness to manage daily living, obtain and maintain housing, identify client needs for other services, socialise, build and maintain relationships, engage with appropriate education and employment opportunities.
Of the people who are not receiving the psychosocial support they need through the NDIS or other government-funded programs, 263,100 experience moderate mental illness and 230,500 experience severe mental illness, according to the analysis.
Bridge primary and acute care
Carolyn Nikoloski, CEO of Mental Health Australia, said the Ministers’ meeting was “an important moment”, showing a willingness from governments to listen to community and the mental health sector, and work together to achieve change.
The Ministers agreed to deliver on two of the three immediate actions endorsed by 80 of Mental Health Australia’s member organisations – releasing the unmet needs final report and holding biannual meetings to discuss mental health reforms.
Nikoloski said this commitment “couldn’t come sooner”, especially following The Lancet Psychiatry Commission’s review highlighting the rise in mental ill-health among young people.
The mental health organisations had also called on the Ministers to commit to a national accord to co-fund a system of supports bridging primary and acute care, which was not addressed in the Health and Mental Health Ministers’ communique following the meeting.
The Ministers said governments are considering the final report and the implications for future reform, in line with the National Agreement’s commitments, taking into consideration the broader reform landscape.
They also “remain committed” to working with the mental health sector, including people with lived experience and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on the design and implementation of psychosocial supports.
Charles Maskell-Knight, a former senior public servant in the Commonwealth Department of Health, wrote at Croakey earlier this week that the Health Ministers Meeting was “short on deliverable action”.
The NSW Mental Health Alliance, which includes Black Dog Institute and Mental Health Carers NSW, said in a statement that the commitments made by the Ministers represent “significant progress”; however, “the journey towards a robust mental health system demands timely and coordinated action from all levels of government to meet the demands of current and future populations”.
The Ministers’ commitments must also be accompanied by sufficient financial commitment to ensure “reforms translate into meaningful improvements in the mental health system”, they said.
Limitations
The analysis also highlighted key limitations in data access and sovereignty for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
While recognising the importance of social and emotional wellbeing programs for delivering holistic and psychosocial support for First Nations people, the analysis was not able to capture the range of these programs and a lack of First Nations’ disability data – a “problematic limitation”, they wrote.
The report also recommends that future analysis must include “expanded and diverse lived experience engagement and perspectives, noting there has been limited meaningful lived experience engagement due to the technical nature of the project”.
Reflections via X (formerly Twitter)
Read: Not before time: Lived experience-led justice and repair
See Croakey’s archive of articles on mental health