Intergenerational Report - a missed opportunity for a mental health focus
The release of the 2023 Intergenerational Report this week was a missed opportunity to recognise the strong body of evidence that says investment in mental health reform is good for the economy, as well as being good for the mental health and wellbeing of our communities, both now and for our future generations.
Five years ago this October, Mental Health Australia and KPMG released Investing to Save – The economic benefits for Australia of investment in mental health reform. The report tackled a set of complex issues from a new perspective, and a new pragmatic approach to the task of reforming our mental health system.
The premise was that the investment of a dollar now, could save up to three dollars in the future, or more specifically that the proposed recommendations would generate between $8.2 billion and $12.7 billion from an investment of under $4.4 billion.
Two years later the inherent connection between mental health, wellbeing and productivity was also observed by the Productivity Commission in their 2020 inquiry into Mental Health, where they recommended systemic reforms to Australia’s mental health system to reduce costs and improve wellbeing.
And then earlier this year, our Measuring What Matters: submission to the Australian Government Treasury highlighted how mental health is an intrinsic component of our individual and collective wellbeing, quality of life, and capacity to contribute and participate socially and economically.
The Treasury initiative of Measuring What Matters - to help us better understand our economy and society, while informing policy making is referred to as footnote to the Intergenerational Report, and while there is continued emphasis on the ‘care economy’ and the fact that Australia’s care economy could increase from its present about 8% of GDP to about 15% in 40 years, it appears we still need to keep highlighting the connections between mental health, wellbeing, community engagement, productivity and the future of our economy.
In the Treasurer’s speech to launch the Intergenerational Report, he talked about a generational fork in the road to shape our future, and the idea of being ‘maximisers’, not just managers.
To maximise the benefits of systemic investment in mental health reform and service delivery, we must act on the large body of evidence before us, like the PC Report and Investing to Save, and the many, many more reports that have gone before us.
The Intergenerational Report is a look ahead to what demographic and economic pressures are coming our way over the next 40 years, and the policy design and delivery needed to deal with them. This report listed five main ‘spending pressures’ - health, aged care, NDIS, defence and interest payments on debt.
We believe that investing in bold and ambitious mental health reform is a key enabler to action for the majority of these areas, and rather than mental health being viewed as a ‘spending pressure’, it is better framed as an investment in our community and our national productivity, for both now and into the future.
The growing body of evidence year-on-year will strengthen our ongoing advocacy efforts for the future – or in the words from Investing to Save – deliver economic returns to government and the economy, at the same time as achieving positive health and social outcomes for people who experience mental ill-health.
Have a good weekend.
Carolyn Nikoloski
CEO, Mental Health Australia | 
