Public comment closed this week to the Australian Productivity Commission Draft Report Into Mental Health. MHACA was broadly supportive of the draft report, however highlighted some key concerns in our submission:
- The draft report does not consider in depth the very key role of the community managed mental health support sector in assisting people with mental health difficulties over the long-term in their process of recovery.
- We share the concern raised in the report about the lack of mental health support services available in the community for those not eligible for the NDIS.
- Aboriginal people in remote and very remote communities in the NT have been disadvantaged in their mental health care and have not received adequate supports.
- We support the emphasis on delivery of suicide prevention by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and encourage a strategy to build the capacity of those organisations to develop place-based strategies.
- We believe that an emphasis on peer work is important and support the recommendations in the draft Report however we encourage a broader reflection of the many and varied ways in which people with mental health difficulties can bring their lived experience to mental health services.
Read MHACA’s full submission at https://mhaca.org.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/Productivity-Commission-Draft-Report-on-Mental-Health.pdf
Read the draft report overview here:
https://www.pc.gov.au/…/dr…/mental-health-draft-overview.pdf
