The ‘urgent’ need for more mental health support goes wanting

The mental health sector calls for more support amid growing crisis crisis that has been exacerbated by increased demand for help and workforce shortages.

Mental health advocates would like to see more support for the sector. Picture: iStock

Australia has a growing mental health crisis that has been exacerbated by increased demand for help and workforce shortages that the nation’s psychologists and psychiatrists have warned is in need of “urgent” attention.

Data shows mental health concerns are the main reason Australians visit a GP, but for many it is important healthcare that remains out of reach.

This has been a crisis years in the making and will take even longer to resolve.

When the world first entered the 2020 pandemic, all attention went to fighting the virus and keeping the frailest safe. As the days wore on, a growing number of doctors began to air concerns about what impact the unprecedented event would have on the mental health of the world’s population.

While the pandemic did help to normalise conversations about mental health, it also saw an increase in demand for help. It’s a demand that remains unmet to this day and has been exacerbated by traumatic world events and a health workforce that’s been confronted by burnout and job strain.

Following the Bondi stabbings last year, the nation’s mental health services saw a huge increase in demand, even in parts of the country far away from Sydney. Those in the sector say it has become a common trend following traumatic global events and attribute it to a society more “on edge”.

This budget does include some provisions for mental health support, including $46m over four years to continue digital support service, building on $135.2m announced in February.

There is also $24.7m over four years to help deliver more culturally safe mental healthcare to First Nations people and support 150 Indigenous psychology students, and money set aside to provide continued mental health support for Australians impacted by the conflict in the Middle East.

However the measures are unlikely to go as far as those working in this sector would hope.

Mental health care is complex and requires far longer consul­tations than is routinely on offer.

Increases to bulk billing, pledged by both Labor and the Coalition are surely welcome additions for the delivery of healthcare. However, mental health is an area that requires more time and attention than can be delivered in quick visit to the GP.

The Australian Medical Association has long been calling for increased Medicare funding to support longer consultations. So too the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

“The RACGP applauds the budget’s significant injection of funding into the GP workforce,” RACGP president Michael Wright said. “Our plan for accessible, affordable general practice care for all Australia calls for a 25 per cent increase to patient rebates for mental health, which are one of the most common consults, and a 40 per cent increase to patient rebates for longer consults.”

Adding to those calls is the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, which described the budget as offering “band aids” for mental health.

“For over a decade, successive budgets have handed our mental health system crumbs while it starves of the basics. This budget is no different,” said RANZCP president Elizabeth Moore.

“Australia’s mental health crisis is peaking at the frontlines, with emergency departments overwhelmed with mental health presentations, private psychiatric hospitals closing and the workforce burning out under relentless demand.

“And yet governments keep reaching for short-term fixes that do nothing to address the structural damage caused by debilitating workforce shortages and piecemeal funding.”

Given the scale of mental health demand, the group did not have great expectations heading into the budget. As the coming weeks roll by and the federal election draws closer, many of the nation’s mental health workers will be holding out hope that one of the major parties will pay even more attention to the nation’s mental wellbeing and stump up the funds so desperately needed.