More than $111 million in additional funding for the NSW mental health system has been announced ahead of the state budget, as a parliamentary inquiry report lashes a chronically underfunded system.
MENTAL HEALTH FUNDING BOOST:
* Community mental health teams caring for people with persistent and complex illnesses allocated $30.4m over four years for 35 more outreach staff, extended service hours and better case management
* Streamlined access to care through a "single front door" model providing mental health assessment and service referrals at a cost of $39m over four years
* Support for patients transitioning from long-stay mental health settings into community living with $40m over four years and more than 25 clinicians
PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRY FINDINGS:
* The inquiry found significant barriers to accessing mental health care in a fragmented system across NSW, with that contributing to more distress
* Inadequate funding is compounding challenges for patients and carers
* Police involvement in mental-health emergencies can escalate emotional and psychological distress and a health-led approach has support from a broad range of stakeholders
* Emergency departments are not appropriate settings for mental health care in the majority of cases
RECOMMENDATIONS:
* A whole-of-government reform approach addressing social and environmental determinants of mental ill-health, including housing, cost of living, transport, education, employment, climate change and natural disasters
* More funding from the Commonwealth to increase pay for public mental-health clinicians and funding for training courses
* Better information-sharing, with more data accessibility between organisations and agencies, and ensuring existing mental-health service directories are regularly updated and easy to find
WHAT THEY SAID:
"We've been able to pick out what's working as part of these initiatives, put extra funding into it, and our profound hope is that it does make a difference in somebody's life." - Premier Chris Minns
"Yes, there's more to do, but this is leaning into some of the most significant problems that we've seen, and I think it's really going to help people who've struggled to navigate the system." - Mental Health Minister Rose Jackson
"This is going to go a long way to preventing people from falling through the cracks and actually providing services to people where they need it most." - St Vincent's Hospital homeless health service's Erin Longbottom
"It is clear that mental health care in NSW has become reactive and crisis-driven, and is letting down people seeking help, carers, as well as those working within the mental health sector." - parliamentary inquiry chair and Greens MP Amanda Cohn
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