investment

The 2010 Australian of the Year, Professor Pat McGorry, leaves an indelible and important legacy – he has pushed mental health to the forefront of the political agenda and been a passionate and tireless advocate for reform and investment in mental health services.

The Mental Health Council of Australia ( MHCA ) has welcomed ALP mental health commitments announced by Prime Minister Gillard and Health Minister Roxon. “The measures outlined by the Prime Minister today are real steps forward, particularly in relation to increased accountability for mental health services through a national mental health report card, and increased investment in anti-suicide measures”, said David Crosbie, CEO of the Mental Health Council.

Australia’s leading health and mental health organisations will presented a letter to the Rudd Government calling for increased investment in mental health. The letter is the result of increasing concern by the mental health community that the Government’s new health funding announcements may exacerbate key structural barriers to reform in mental health.

The Government called this a “no frills” Budget – but despite the increased expenditure in health care, mental health has been relegated to a very thin line of lace on the periphery of a substantive new investment mostly into hospital services. “Although the Government has now supported all these recommendations, there is limited funding and no implementation plan”, said CEO David Crosbie.

Today’s announcement of major changes to the way we fund and administer hospitals shows that the Rudd Government is committed to reforming the health system, however, hospital reform is only one part of the health system reform Australia desperately needs. “Fixing hospitals is very important. Fixing the systems that feed into hospitals and leave people marooned with no other options is also critical”, said David Crosbie, MHCA CEO .

David Crosbie, CEO of the Mental Health Council of Australia , told the 7.30 Report that greater investment is needed in community-based treatment options for people with a mental illness. “We could create another 1,000 acute hospital beds tomorrow and they’d be full within a month and it would still be really difficult for people to still get access to acute mental health beds”, Mr Crosbie said.