SSWAHS = SWSLHN and mental health in the Southern Highlands

Socrates says: "It's great that the National AMA is prepared to put forward the case for more funding, but not all mental health services are provided from general practices in this country."

If we are to have a more egalitarian mental health service we do need to engage the other parts of the private sector in the treatment and support of persons with a mental illness.

Likewise, we need to ensure that part of the funding goes to support the carers of the persons with the mental illness. Mainly because they provide the 24/7 care and support to the person and not the clinicians in the private or public health sectors.

Finally, let's ensure that the public health sector has the finances and the staffing levels to provide a better mental health service to the persons with the mental illness. The level of mental health beds available in the state of NSW is currently abysmal, with one of the highest populations and the lowest number of available beds per 100,000 in the country. With the changes in the state's parliament it's time for a new broom to sweep away the dinosaurs who have held back NSW from taking the lead in improving mental health outcomes for people with a mental illness.

As far as the Southern Highlands is concerned I hope that the new broom sweeps through the Concord Hospital Centre for Mental Health and removes some of the incompetents there.


Mental health needs more funding, services: AMA

29th Mar 2011

Andrew Bracey all articles by this author

1 comment

THE AMA has called on the Federal Government to provide $5 billion in funding to expand, better resource and coordinate mental health services.

The money would be used over four years to increase MBS rebates for GP consultations relating to mental health issues, to better reflect the complexities involved and meanwhile support public campaigns to reduce the stigma attached to mental illness.

The call came as the association today unveiled its latest position statement on mental health which included a range of priority areas for government action in mental health policy.

The AMA plan also backed previous calls by mental health campaigners including Professor Patrick McGorry to expand the number of community-based youth mental health Headspace centres and the number of Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centres.

Phone counselling services would also be expanded under the AMA plan.

AMA President Dr Andrew Pesce said that Australians with a mental illness deserved to have ready access to quality individualised mental healthcare.

"This requires a significant expansion of services, intervention and support across the whole continuum of care for people with mental illness," Dr Pesce said in a statement.

"This also requires a significant funding boost to address the gaps in our current mental health services and enable the delivery of comprehensive, integrated and coordinated mental health services for all people who may develop an acute or chronic mental illness at any stage of their lives."

The AMA's position statement, which also discusses the need for greater government action across areas such as prevention, early identification and intervention, community-based care as well as acute and sub-acute care, can be accessed at: http://ama.com.au/node/6524

Comments:

Bibiana
29th Mar 2011
4:53pm

It is great to see AMA taking a strong stand in pushing the Federal Government for more injecting more funding into mental health services at Primary Care level. It was Oct 2008 at the WONCA Conference in Melbourne that WHO launched their report "Integrating Mental Health into Primary Care - A Global Perspective". In the report it provided 7 good reasons for such integration. On top of the list is 'the burden of mental disorders is great'. In my view as a consumer, the most important reason is 'Primary care for mental health promotes RESPECT OF HUMAN RIGHTS'. This is in-line with AMA's call for more funding to support campaigns to reduce the stigma attached to mental illness.
I recently attended a mental health forum 'What happened to mental health under Gillard?' in Sydney, one of the speakers was Prof Ian Hickie. He highlighted his 'Love and Hate' relationship with the Federal Government (and all the PMS and Health Ministers involved). The current government is exhausted in fixing too many unpopular policies (carbon tax, mining super tax etc), the Health Reform has to give way and let alone mental health. In his concluding remark, Prof Hickie pointed out the obvious - if the Government is smart enough to fix the long overdue mental health problems, many of the physical health issues will become more manageable and not vice-versa!

To download WHO's report, go to the following link:
http://www.who.int/mental_health/policy/Integratingmhintoprimarycare2008_lastversion.pdf