A review by the National Mental Health Commission has found the current mental health system is stretched to breaking point and needs to focus on “catching people before they fall”. Health Minister Sussan Ley is planning an overhaul of the mental health system, but there is no quick fix and details won’t be released until later in the year.
The mental health system review, concluded in April, concluded that Australia needed to move away from focusing on crisis and acute care, and, instead, invest more resources into community-based services, primary health care, prevention and early intervention.
The new system will also see an approach based on organising services around the needs of the person instead of the current service-centred approach. In her radio interview with the ABC, Sussan Ley described a “stepped-care system” focused on the needs of the person so that the correct levels of care are put in place after a hospital visit.
“I do want to say that it needs to be different from the previous one. And it needs to, for example, recognise that where somebody may go into hospital after a suicide attempt, when they leave hospital they’re not left on their own, they do have somewhere to go, and they do have some follow up.” said Sussan Ley.
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