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2022 Federal Budget Preliminary Analysis for community mental health

Sector welcomes increased funding for mental health services in some areas, however, the lack of support for psychosocial services a concern.

Mental Health Community Coalition ACT’s Senior Policy and Systemic Advocacy Officer, Corinne Dobson, has provided a preliminary analysis on the Federal Budget and what it means for the sector.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg delivered the Federal Budget 2022-2023 on Tuesday 29 March 2022 and while there are some welcome mental health initiatives in the announcement, the lack of funding to continue psychosocial services means existing support programs will cease in June 2023.

The community mental health sector has generally criticised the overall Budget announcement for being neither on the scale nor appropriately targeted to close existing service gaps and deliver meaningful reform. Of particular concern is the neglect of the psychosocial service sector, which fails to address the large unmet gap in psychosocial services that has been demonstrated by the Productivity Commission and many others.

We thank Corinne and the ACT peak for sharing this piece.

View the analysis