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Speaking frankly... 
A must read... The UN Human Rights Council Special Report into highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
Good reports should carry weight and help drive policy, reform and eventually outcomes… And the recent release of the Report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health certainly has the opportunity to do just that.
This UN Special Report lays out some very clear challenges to member states (including Australia), so I’ll let it speak for itself rather than interpret too much.
It begins by recognising that:
“Despite clear evidence that there can be no health without mental health, nowhere in the world does mental health enjoy parity with physical health in national policies and budgets or in medical education and practice.”
Among its major themes, the Special Report suggests:
- Strong move away from a predominantly biomedical, psychiatry driven model of mental health
- Strong support for psychosocial support in primary care and community settings
- Strong support for consumer participation in all aspects of planning, implementation and evaluation
- Strong approach to reducing coercion and involuntary treatments
- Strong recommendations regarding prevention and health promotion
It lays out a holistic agenda for what it calls the “right to health” which includes mental health, and steps well away from dominant biomedical approaches:
“Approaches to mental health that ignore the social, economic and cultural environment are not just failing people with disabilities, they are failing to promote the mental health of many others at different stages of their lives.”
This reinforces one of its central themes that there can be no health without mental health. The Report also reinforces the role of consumers and carers in shaping policy and implementation:
Persons with lived experience, their families and civil society should be engaged in the development and implementation of monitoring and accountability arrangements.
There is recognition that some of our previous approaches to mental health, while well intentioned, have not had the expected results, observing that:
“In some countries, the abandonment of asylums has created an insidious pipeline to homelessness, hospital and prison.”
The Special Report recommends our future approach should not be built around pilots and trials at the edges, but should place mental health at the centre of our approach to health:
The scaling up of care must not involve the scaling-up of inappropriate care. For care to comply with the right to health, it must embrace a broad package of integrated and coordinated services for promotion, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, care and recovery and the rhetoric of “scaling up” must be replaced with mental health actions to “scale across.”
To my mind this UN Special Report reinforces that many of our current policy directions and intentions are good, but we have a long way to go before our implementation matches those good intentions.
There’s a lot in this 20 page document for us all to reflect on, but it’s well worth the read and reminds us that with the right reform, service and support
“People can and do recover from even the most severe mental health conditions and go on to live full and rich lives.”
Frank Quinlan
Chief Executive Officer
Mental health outlook poorer for rural and remote Australians - RFDS
Congratulations to Royal Flying Doctor Service on the release of their report - Mental Health in Remote and Rural Communities last weekend and we were pleased to be involved in helping to promote the report.
The report reveals suicide and self-harm rates are higher in remote and rural Australia than in major cities despite no difference in prevalence of mental illness in Australians based on where they live. Residents of very remote areas are twice as likely to die by suicide as city residents.
See our Media Release below, or click here to watch an interview on ABC Weekend Breakfast from last Saturday.
Next WeekBe sure to make the most of the Queen's Birthday holiday on Monday if you get the chance to have a public holiday, though I'm always conscious of the many people in our sector who work shifts and weekends to ensure people have access to services when they need them. Here's hoping those people get a break too at some stage. Tuesday will see both houses of Parliament return to Canberra, sitting through until Thursday 22 June. On Friday, Mental Health Australia will be hosting more than 50 consumers and carers for the National Register Induction Training Workshop in Canberra. |
Meet a Mental Health Australia Member
Orygen - Mental health needs of young Australian men
falling through the cracks
Orygen, the National Centre for Excellence in Youth Mental Health has released a major report revealing that young men are continuing to fall through the cracks of our mental health system.
Titled ‘Keeping It Real: Reimagining mental health care for all young men’, the report finds that although young males are almost three times as likely to die by suicide as young Australian females, only a small proportion of young men are accessing services, or receiving appropriate treatment for their mental ill-health.
Rather than continuing to offer more of the same in terms of service and treatment models for young men experiencing mental ill health, the report is calling for innovative new approaches to be developed and trialled, co-designed with young men themselves.
Continue reading Orygen’s recommendations and the full report
Web - www.orygen.org.au
Facebook - www.facebook.com/OrygenAustralia
Twitter - @orygen_aus
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
Gympie to receive new youth mental health services
A new headspace youth mental health service will be established at Gympie in Queensland to help support the mental health of young people in this region. The Federal Assistant Minister for Health, Dr David Gillespie, joined the Member for Wide Bay, Mr Llew O’Brien at the Central Queensland, Wide Bay, Sunshine Coast Primary Health Network to announce the new headspace services. headspace services will provide vital early intervention support to young people in Gympie, a region working to overcome disadvantages that in some cases can lead to increased mental ill-health and self-harm, and suicide rates higher than the national average.
New Mental Health Commissioner to help drive key priority
Queensland has named a new Mental Health Commissioner to help strengthen the delivery of integrated care across government and the community sectors. Minister for Health and Ambulance Services, Cameron Dick, said mental health expert Ivan Frkovic had been appointed as Commissioner for a period of three years from 1 July 2017, following a merit selection process.
‘Hidden’ carers urged to connect with Carer Gateway
More than two and a half million Australians care for a loved one, friend or neighbour but many are unaware of the support services available – and the Australian Government is keen to help. The Hon Jane Prentice MP, Assistant Minister for Social Services and Disability Services, is encouraging carers to connect with local services through the national online and telephone service—Carer Gateway.
ACT Budget brings mental health to the fore
The ACT Government’s has announced that its 2017-2018 Budget will include funding for a new Office for Mental Health as well as targeted programs and initiatives aimed at reducing environmental impacts and increasing physical activity signals a strong commitment to improving public health and addressing external contributors to disease, which other states and territories would do well to follow. The new ACT Office for Mental Health, which will serve as a central coordination point for providing services, shows a progressive move toward the integration of mental health with mainstream health, and is an important step toward preventing and treating disorders such as anxiety and depression which afflict a significant number of people nationwide.
Access to mental health services is key to turn around the
poor outcomes for the bush
A long-term investment plan is needed to overcome the ongoing shortfall in access to mental health services in rural and remote Australia, David Butt, CEO of the National Rural Health Alliance, said this week. People living in remote and very remote communities in Australia access only a small portion of the mental health services available to their city cousins according to a new report from the Royal Flying Doctors Service Mental Health in Remote and Rural Communities. This is despite experiencing mental health disorders at the same rate as people in the cities. The RFDS has examined the data it collects on aeromedical retrievals for emergency mental health care to determine the barriers to better mental health in the bush and how these can be overcome.
Reminders
PM highlights importance of mental health at AMA conference
In case you missed it last week, Prime Minister The Hon Malcolm Turnbull used his speech at the Australian Medical Association conference in Melbourne to highlight the importance of mental health, both in the medical profession and the wider community. Click on the link below to see just what he had to say.
beyondblue leads major new mental health in education initiative
beyondblue is set to lead a transformation in the development of good mental health and wellbeing practices for all Australian children from early learning centres to the end of secondary school. After a competitive tender process the Minister for Health, The Hon. Greg Hunt MP, today announced a grant of $52.7 million over two years to beyondblue for a new mental health in education program.
beyondblue will begin the first stage of developing and designing the ground-breaking initiative from July 1, 2017.
'Our Toughest Challenge Yet': Lifeline campaign tackles male suicide
A new campaign to breakdown traditional male values of stoicism and masculinity has been launched by Lifeline Australia, highlighting the lifesaving importance of open and non-judgemental conversations about suicide. The national charity’s CEO Pete Shmigel said that the ‘Our Toughest Challenge Yet’ campaign (see here) focuses on the national suicide emergency and its impact on Australian men and their families.
National Rural Health Alliance - Nominations for the
Friends Advisory Committee close this Friday 9 June
Do you support the Alliance’s Vision of good health and wellbeing in remote and rural Australia and do you strive for equal health for all, regardless of where they live?
Do you have an interest in working towards, and advocating for, better health and wellbeing for rural and remote Australians?
Are you interested in contributing to rural and remote health through supporting the work of the National Rural Health Alliance?
If you answered yes to these questions nominate to join the Friends Advisory Committee and be the voice for your State or Territory. Click on the link below to find out more.
TheMHS Conference 2017 - View the Program of Events
Join us in Sydney this August for TheMHS Conference 2017: Embracing Change Through Innovation and Lived Experience. The preliminary program is now online. The conference program incorporates 11 streams of concurrent sessions over three days, as well as 3 fantastic keynote speakers, featured symposia and more! Visit www.themhs.org for all Conference information and to register online.
Mental Health First Aid - International participants needed:
People who have experience with depression
Aftercare welcome new CEO
Aftercare Chair John Thomas has welcomed new appointment of Dr Andrew Young as the new CEO of Aftercare effective Monday 26th June 2017. Andrew is dedicated to improving the effectiveness of social impact across the social purpose, government and corporate sectors in Australia. Andrew held the position of Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Social Impact 2012 to 2016 focusing on systemic social change issues. He was recognized as a member of Australia’s first Impact 25 influencers in the social sector.
Effective Mental Health Care in the Perinatal Period
The Centre of Perinatal Excellence (COPE) is pleased to announce the release of this Draft Perinatal Mental Health Guideline, which is now open for public consultation (June 5-July 4, 2017). The new Guideline serves to provide health professionals with the latest evidence to guide best practice in assessment and management of perinatal mental health across the range of primary, maternity, postnatal and mental health settings.
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