Speaking frankly...                                       

It will be a mistake… if we don’t make both systems work.

The World Health Organisation's Mental Health Plan 2013 - 2020 says member states have a responsibility to:

Ensure that people with mental disorders and psychosocial disabilities are included in activities of the wider disability community...

The WHO plan says psychosocial disability refers to:

People who have received a mental health diagnosis, and who have experienced negative social factors including stigma, discrimination and exclusion. People living with psychosocial disabilities include ex-users, current users of the mental health care services, as well as persons that identify themselves as survivors of these services or with the psychosocial disability itself.

I quote these passages today, because some of you will have seen a headline, and story, on the front page of The Australian today saying "Mental health in NDIS a ‘mistake’..."

And such a bold assertion requires some careful analysis.

The advocacy of people with lived experience of mental health issues and psychosocial disability was the key reason the Productivity Commission was convinced to include psychosocial disability within the scope of the NDIS, though this did happen late in their considerations.

I think much of the confusion and difficulty since, has arisen because too many have assumed this means moving the mental health system completely into the NDIS. This should not be the case, and there are many policy decisions that have helped to confound this error.

Serious mental health issues impact some 690,000 Australians each year. Of those, on the Government's own estimate, only about 230,000 are in need of ongoing psychosocial support of some kind. Of these, only about 64,000 are considered to be in need of complex, individualised packages of psychosocial support.

The care that will be delivered through the NDIS should comprise non-clinical supports and individually tailored packages of psychosocial support - ie support for psychosocial disability - especially functional support and capacity building – for that small group of people.

Outside the NDIS, we continue to require a high quality mix of services and programs to support both NDIS participants, and non-participants with the right mix of clinical, non-clinical and psychosocial supports.

In short, we need a high quality mental health system to support the one in five Australians who experience mental health issues each year.  We also need a high quality NDIS to provide support for the very small number of Australians who experience psychosocial disability that might be considered very long term or even lifelong.

To put it another way, why would we exclude some 64,000 Australians experiencing psychosocial disability from the supports offered by the NDIS? To do so would send a signal that people with psychosocial disability are not deserving of the same supports and entitlements of people with other disabilities, and would put us out of step with the direction flagged by the World Health Organisation.

It would also put us out of step with those advocates with lived experience of these issues, who worked so hard to ensure they were not excluded.

The solution lies in making both systems work, and it would be a mistake to choose one or the other.
 

Frank Quinlan
Chief Executive Officer

 

Video: Highlights of the 2017 Parliamentary Advocacy Day

To celebrate and revisit our recent Advocacy Day, I invite you to view a short video showing the highlights of the recent 2017 Parliamentary Advocacy Day at Parliament House on 23 March. Please feel free to share the video through your own networks and social media platforms.  You might even see yourself!

The video is a good illustration of what was a highly positive and productive day for Australia's mental health sector, and we once again thank all of those who participated and will continue to foster relationships made on the day.

In the coming weeks we will share further videos of all key presentations made.

Forging New Relationships with the Life Insurance Industry: Josh Fear

Last week I appeared on a panel at the Financial Services Council’s annual life insurance conference in Sydney, addressing the topic ‘mental health and underwriting’. As many of you will know, Mental Health Australia has been concerned for many years about discrimination against people with mental illness by insurance companies. We've been working with beyondblue, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and (more recently) Victoria Legal Aid to help people protect their rights and seek redress where insurance companies have treated them unfairly.

The panel session was in a sense a snapshot of broader society: a mix of entrenched, stigmatising attitudes about mental illness, alongside a growing awareness of mental health and a desire to see positive change.

One of my co-panellists took a particularly combative approach, arguing that providing access to life insurance for people with mental illness is not commercially viable in the long term. He argued that our call for better data to more accurately assess risk was misguided, warning the mental health sector should 'be careful what we wish for'.

Reassuringly, quite a few people from the insurance industry approached me after the event to distance themselves from those views and convey their willingness to work on progressive solutions to an obvious problem.

This event was the first time we can remember someone from the mental health sector being invited to address insurers in a public forum. That is progress of a kind, but of course we have a long way to go to ensure people who disclose a mental health diagnosis can access the insurance market on fair terms. Meanwhile, we have another insight into how close or far the insurance industry is to adapting their practices as the world changes around them.

You can read a write-up of my talk in industry magazine the Financial Standard.

Josh Fear
Director, Policy and Projects

 

Meet a Mental Health Australia Member

National LGBTI Health Alliance

The National LGBTI Health Alliance is the national peak health organisation in Australia for organisations and individuals that provide health-related programs, services and research focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people (LGBTI) and other sexuality, gender, and bodily diverse people and communities.

They recognise that people’s genders, bodies, relationships, and sexualities affect their health and wellbeing in every domain of their life.

They're vision is 'Healthy lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans/transgender, intersex, and other sexuality, gender, and bodily diverse people and communities throughout Australia and the world, free from stigma and discrimination.'

Web - http://lgbtihealth.org.au/
Facebook - http://facebook.com/NationalLGBTIHealthAlliance
Twitter - http://twitter.com/lgbtihealth 

Become a Member of Mental Health Australia

As the peak body for the mental health sector in Australia, Mental Health Australia is uniquely placed to influence the national debate on mental health issues and achieve our vision of mentally healthy people and communities. Representing more than 100 organisations in the mental health sector, find out more about Membership at the link below.

Parliamentary News

Online resources to assist planning ahead for people with dementia 

Life expectancy and disability in Australia: expected years living with and without disability 

Australians are living longer, and their state of health in these years has important implications for population health and wellbeing and for Australia's health and care systems. Between 2003 and 2015, life expectancy at birth increased for both sexes, and most of this increase corresponded with an increase in years living free of disability and free of severe or profound core activity limitation. Older Australians have also seen increases in the expected number of years living free of disability.

Reminders

Final Reminder for entries in the 2017 Mental Health Service Awards of Australia and New Zealand (TheMHS Awards)

Support the Canberra show of 'This Is My Brave'

RM Gibson Scientific Research Fund Grant Applications for 2017 Open

Suicide Awareness and Prevention Workshop, Edmonton, 19 April 2017

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