Psychologists call for Budget focus on mental health

Improve access to psychological services for people with mental health problems, victims of sex abuse, family violence and Indigenous Australians

The Australian Psychological Society (APS) has called for mental health reform that provides for all Australians in its recent Budget submission to Government.

Among the priorities listed by the APS are early intervention and prevention starting in childhood, a focus on vulnerable groups including people with chronic and severe mental illness, cost-effective services for high prevalence disorders such as anxiety and depression and action to improve Indigenous social and emotional wellbeing.

APS Executive Director Professor Lyn Littlefield said, “We have a new Prime Minister, we are going into a new budget and we are on the cusp of mental health reform with a much anticipated Government response to the National Review of Mental Health Programmes and Services expected soon. Now is the ideal time to take action on mental health and build that focus into a new Budget.”

“We need an invest-to-save model. The right mix of mental health services can save money and also ease the burden on those suffering in our community. If we invest in key areas, such as early intervention and treatment through psychological services, we will make savings in other areas of the budget while at the same time ensuring those in need get the care they require.”

The APS called for the retention and expansion of the Better Access initiative, which provides psychological services under Medicare. Better Access successfully delivers services to millions of Australians every year and is recognised as a world-leading approach to mental health.

In particular, the APS has called to increase the existing 10 Better Access sessions per year to 16, effectively a reinstatement of sessions that were previously cut.

“Better Access was a landmark policy, and since its introduction in 2006 has proven to be effective, low-cost and efficient in delivering services for the vast majority of people who experience mental health problems such as depression and anxiety,” Professor Littlefield said. “However, we know that additional sessions are clinically important for people with more complex and chronic mental illnesses, such as eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder.”

Early intervention and prevention through programmes targeting children and young people is another key plank in the submission which recommends the expansion of the existing effective evaluated programs KidsMatter and Mindmatters.

“If we provide all children with support in school and help them develop good social and emotional skills, we can not only identify problems early and intervene, we can also reduce future problems. That’s literally the potential to save lives and future costs that would be associated with a whole range of services down the track,” Professor Littlefield said.

She said the time for action had come and it was paramount to elevate mental health on the agenda to make improvements that would impact lives positively as well as the Budget bottom line.

“We have been talking about mental health reform in Australia for years, and programs like Better Access have been a significant advance, but now we need build on that to improve the mental health of all Australians.”

Key recommendations:

• Expand KidsMatter to all schools and early childhood services
• Increase Better Access sessions from 10 to 16 per year
• Adopt the recommendations of National Review of Mental Health Programmes and Services in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing
• Implement recommendations 9 and 10 of the Redress and Civil Litigation Report recently released by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
• Provide flexible and long-term access to psychological care to survivors of domestic violence and child abuse