Incoming Government Brief from the community mental health sector

Mental Health Coordinating Council has produced an Incoming Government Brief for the recently elected New South Wales government setting out the role and value of community-managed organisations in the delivery of key mental health services and supports.

The Brief outlines opportunities the incoming State Government may wish to prioritise to support people living with mental health conditions in NSW. MHCC CEO Carmel Tebbutt and Chair Judi Higgins presented the Brief at a meeting with the NSW Minister for Mental Health Rose Jackson.

Four key areas of opportunity that would improve the mental health of people in NSW, support the mental health workforce and implement system reforms and cost savings are identified in the Community Managed Mental Health Incoming Government Brief.

See the full report

1. NSW and the National Agreement

The National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement signed in March 2022 by the NSW and Australian Governments is a major opportunity to clarify responsibilities and additional funding for psychosocial services by each level of government.

Priority actions

Work with other State and Territories and the Australian Governments to address the gap in psychosocial support services outside the NDIS as required by the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement.
Complete the NSW gap analysis of psychosocial support services.

2. Funding community-managed mental health

In the 2022-23 Budget, $2.9 billion was invested into mental health by the NSW Government. Despite this increased funding, NSW spends less per capita than other states to support people with mental health conditions.

Priority actions

Consider a stable, dedicated form of additional funding for the NSW mental health system. This can be achieved through a mental health surcharge similar to the payroll levy introduced in Victoria and Queensland.
Provide adequate indexation that responds to the impact of inflation on services and salaries for community organisations.

3. Improve access to services

People experiencing mental health challenges should be able to access supports that are close to home and enable their continued connection to community. For people experiencing urgent mental health crises, there are few widely available alternatives to emergency departments. Yet, existing models of care and treatment approaches exist in the community sector.

Priority actions

Expand the already existing psychosocial support packages available in NSW by 2,500 in the first year, increasing to 10,000 packages within four years at the cost of $365 million.
Establish a network of ‘Step-Up Step-Down’ services across NSW by adding an extra 130 places for people to access residential programs that minimise hospital admission.
Scale up the five existing Youth Community Living Support Services for young people.
Establish an additional 10 specialist youth services located around the state.

4. Workforce

The community mental health and lived experience (peer) workforces are under extreme pressure, with significant, crippling shortages across the mental health workforce at a time of unprecedented demand for services.

Priority actions

Commit to work with the Australian Government and through the National Mental Health Workforce Strategy to urgently address gaps in the mental health workforce.
Invest in a workforce development program to address current and future shortages.
Provide support and resourcing to the rapidly growing lived and living experience workforces to create employment pathways, workplace readiness and industrial protections.
Provide community mental health organisations with rolling five year contracts based on ongoing review and achievement of objectives.

For all the details see the full Community Managed Mental Health Incoming Government Brief

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Incoming Government Brief from the community mental health sector

1. NSW and the National Agreement

Priority actions

2. Funding community-managed mental health

Priority actions

3. Improve access to services

Priority actions

4. Workforce

Priority actions