Submission on Reforms to Strengthen the National Mental Health Commission and National Suicide Prevention Office

Mental Health Australia was pleased to contribute to the Australian Government’s consultation on the future of the National Mental Health Commission (NMHC). The NMHC has a critical role in monitoring the performance of our mental health and suicide prevention systems, and holding government to account. It is essential that the government strengthens the NMHC, to ensure that we can improve our mental health and suicide prevention systems, ultimately leading to better mental health outcomes and experiences for all people in Australia. 

As outlined in our submission, Mental Health Australia believes the NMHC should be restructured as an independent, standalone statutory agency with a monitoring, reporting and advisory role embedded in enabling legislation. Its focus should be on providing independent, stakeholder-informed, data-driven, and evidence-based feedback to the government and community on mental health and suicide prevention systems performance and improvements, including in the emerging areas of mental health promotion and preventive mental health. It should also focus on holding the government to account publicly for systems performance and the implementation of systems improvements to address gaps and weaknesses in these systems, through regular public reporting, and through the commissioning of relevant independent reviews and reports.

The reformed NMHC should have a statutory skills-based board, complemented by broader advisory bodies. Ideally, the NMHC should have a national focus, and the Australian government should commence a dialogue with State and Territory governments to consider how the NMHC and other Mental Health Commissions can be reconstituted to create a harmonised, national approach to monitoring national systems performance to foster greater coordination and clearer accountability.