A New Strategy for Mental Health and Wellbeing in NSW

The APS welcomes the NSW Government’s proposed Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy that takes a whole-of-government approach to help addresses the social, cultural and economic determinants of mental health. Our submission highlights the urgent need to shift focus from crisis care to prevention and early intervention, supported by cross-sector collaboration and evidence-based system design.

We advocate for targeted investment in workforce reform to expand and retain the psychology workforce, embedding prevention and early intervention across communities, and enabling psychologists to work to their full scope of practice within public systems. In addition, there are four high-impact opportunities for NSW:

1. Embedding suicide prevention across the lifespan
2. Strengthening climate-related psychological preparedness,
3. Scaling up school-based psychology services, and
4. Promoting work as a protective factor for mental health.

We call for strong leadership, clear accountability measures, and transparent reporting to ensure all government agencies play a role in building a mentally healthy NSW.

View submission