Issues Paper for NMHC - Mental Health Response Plan for COVID-19
The National Mental Health Commission is developing a mental health plan responding to the COVID-19 pandemic for the Australian Government to consider with the states and territories. The plan could become a blueprint for future pandemic responses.
On 29 April 2020 Mental Health Australia facilitated an interactive webinar with National Mental Health Commission CEO Ms Christine Morgan and 30 representatives from the mental health and suicide prevention sector.
Due to tight timeframes, the Commission has requested the sector provide input into issues and challenges by Friday 1 May 2020. This document is a collation of feedback Mental Health Australia has received from the mental health sector to provide to the Commission.
In addition to Mental Health Australia’s own input, the following organisations contributed verbal and written feedback to inform this document:
• Australian Association of Developmental Disability Medicine
• batyr
• Beyond Blue
• Community Mental Health Australia
• Embrace (Multicultural Mental Health project)
• Grow
• Mental Health Carers Australia
• Mental Health Coalition of South Australia
• Mental Health Community Coalition ACT
• Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia Inc.
• Neami National
• Northern Territory Mental Health Coalition
• OzHelp
• SANE Australia
• Speech Pathology Australia
• Stride (formerly Aftercare)
• Tandem Inc. Victoria
• The Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists
• WA Association for Mental Health.