carers

NDIS : How is mental health fairing?’ was a symposium at The Mental Health Servicies Conference held in August 2014. It featured presentations from: Eddie Bartnik, NDIA , Tina Smith, MHCC , Rod Astbury, WAAMH and Liz Ruck, Mental Health Australia, followed by a panel discussion chaired by Pam Rutledge, Richmond PRA . The video of the symposium below is accompanied by the attached PowerPoint presentation.

The MHCA is keen to hear from consumers and carers about your knowledge and experiences with Australian Government Disability Employment Services via a short online survey. The survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete and people who wish to discuss their experiences with Disability Employment Services with us in greater detail can elect to do so by providing their contact details. Otherwise the survey can be completed anonymously.

Consumers and Carers Checklist Discussing your healthcare with your clinician is an important way to ensure that you and your clinician make the right choices for you.

This submission highlights the MHCA concern about the availability and quality of mental health support for older people particularly in aged care and acute settings. The MHCA believes that all governments should better protect the rights of older people and those with dementia by providing better access to appropriate mental health service support in the primary health, acute and aged care settings.

The MHCA is committed to the development of program funding for people with a disability and considers the Regulation Impact Statement a key document in the development of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. However, this needs to be made accessible to a wide audience for consideration and needs to consider disability services for people with psychosocial disability related to mental illness.

In December 2012 the Department of Employment Education and Workplace Relations ( DEEWR ) sought input on their discussion paper “Improving the employment participation of people with a disability in Australia”. The MHCA made this submission on the discussion paper.

During December 2012 the Bill to establish the National Disability Insurance Scheme Launch Transition Agency was tabled in Parliament. Public comment was sought by the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee and the MHCA made this submission with input from its NDIS Special Interest Advisory Group.

The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee inquired into the Exposure Draft of the Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012. This joint submission by MHCA and beyondblue draws attention to the negative experiences of people with a mental illness who try to access insurance and proposes amendments to the Bill to ensure that insurers who are granted an exemption from anti-discrimination law are held accountable.

In this submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ( ACCC ) regarding private health insurance, the MHCA has highlighted a number of issues that have the potential to disadvantage mental health consumers, carers and allied health professionals.

The second consultation draft has significantly clarified the framework’s purpose and provides greater clarity around recovery models and the translation of recovery principles into action by mental health services.