Parliamentary committee into mental health finds govt must put more money into crisis fix

A parliamentary committee looking into the state’s mental health system has found desperate Queenslanders need “urgent attention”. SEE KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

The Opposition has called for the government to rule out a new tax to fund solutions to the state’s mental health crisis as a parliamentary inquiry found the Palaszczuk Government needed to pour serious cash into the fractured system.

A parliamentary committee launched in response to The Courier-Mail’s Through the Cracks campaign that highlighted the state’s lack of spending on mental health services has found desperate Queenslanders need “urgent attention” from all governments as their devastating experiences led to “enormous, frequently fatal” impacts for themselves and loved ones.

The Courier-Mail's Through the Cracks campaign highlighted Queensland's fractured mental health system.

After months of calls for a major investment of around $750m a year in extra funding, the committee agreed Queensland’s per capita spend has been below the national average for a decade and recommended “the Queensland Government increases funding and expenditure for mental health and alcohol and other drugs services in Queensland” in five-year funding cycles, although it doesn’t nominate an amount.

It said the state should create a “dedicated funding stream” to finance this, although the committee did not outline whether Queensland should follow Victoria in establishing a “mental health and wellbeing surcharge” on payroll tax paid by big business that state has used to improve its services.

However, LNP and Greens members of the committee filed statements of reservation against any such plan to pay for mental health improvements with a payroll tax levy.

LNP members said they held “serious reservations with the way the Palaszczuk Government plans to raise a new revenue stream”.

“Properly funding and resourcing the Mental Health Sector is critical, however introducing a new payroll tax would force small, medium and large business to pass on their costs to Queenslanders,” they wrote.

Greens MP Amy MacMahon said the Greens would prefer funding was raised by increased mining royalties, a big bank levy or by taxing developers.

Labor MP and committee chair Joe Kelly said implementation of the 57 recommendations for improvement in the committee’s 217-page report “will take courage, commitment, co-ordination, funding and ongoing efforts by governments and our community”.

“If unlimited financial resources existed to deliver services, our state would still face a major challenge delivering needed services due to workforce pressures,” he wrote.

“The committee closely examined this issue and determined that it requires urgent attention and co-operation from governments at every level.”

Ivan Frkovic the Mental Health Commissioner. Photo: Steve Pohlner

It said more people with “lived experience” might be recruited to help fill some of those gaps, while incentives were needed to lure mental health workers to regional roles, scholarships for nurses and professionals-in-training to work in the field and councillors leveraged to work across more areas.

But people with lived experience should also be used to shape mental ill-health, alcohol and drug support services and programs so they were relevant, the report said.

The committee wants more inpatient beds for a variety of people, from children to young adults, new parents, and adults across the cities and in regional areas, but also more “Hospital in the Home” services so that people can get better in familiar surrounds, including in aged care homes, without the need for expensive hospital stays.

The committee, which heard rural and remote services were severely lacking, recommended the government investigate expanding services like the Royal Flying Doctor Service to improve low and moderate intensity service provision.

It wants more focus on new parents at greatest risk – following stories of the dire lack of services available for them – which would focus on peri-natal and infant mental health and expand beds available to struggling new parents to stay with their infants.

More community centres offering accommodation for parents trying to kick drug habits that allowed for their children to stay with them were also needed.

And more GP, psychologist and nurses should be available at schools to support student mental health, with the government pushed to encourage that in non-government schools as well.

The committee also wants the government to do more to care for its own workforce and implement mental health support programs across its health, ambulance, police, fire and child safety, aged care, domestic violence and other service-focused workplaces.

Other suggestions include a public health campaign to reduce stigma associated with mental ill-health, alcohol and drug issues and eating disorders that encourage people to offer and seek help, improved access to public, community and affordable housing and a strengthening of drug diversion court initiatives.

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Fund and implement accountability reforms for the Queensland mental health and alcohol and other drugs service system.

2 Fund consistency and service evaluation, recommends the Queensland government applies 5-year funding cycles to state-funded mental health and alcohol and other drug services.

3 Include families, carers and support persons in Queensland’s mental health system.

4 Include voices of lived experience in service delivery reform.

5 Improve service provision to rural and regional Queensland

6 mprove access to secure and affordable housing in Queensland

7 Expand employment opportunities for people experiencing mental ill‐health and alcohol and other drugs issues

8 Improve the delivery of mental health and alcohol and other drugs services for young people

9 Increase mental health support services in schools, including increasing the availability of GPs, psychologists, and nurses

10 Expand availability of Early Psychosis Service to support young people experiencing serious mental ill‐health

11 Support scholarships to pursue mental health qualifications

12 Expand perinatal and infant mental health services

13 Expand and improve older persons mental health services

14 Co‐design mental health and alcohol and other drugs services with people with lived experience

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