Catholics seek extra aid for nurses working on Covid-19 frontlines

Catholic hospitals want Scott Morrison to forge a new mental health package for nurses and paramedics working on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Assistant Minister for Mental Health David Coleman. Picture: AAP

The nation’s Catholic hospitals are calling on Scott Morrison to forge a new mental health package for nurses and paramedics working on the frontlines of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a letter to Assistant Minister for Mental Health David Coleman this week, Catholic Health Australia chief executive Pat Garcia, a former acting secretary of NSW Labor, said health workers dealing with the Delta strain needed the sort of specialist funding afforded to first responders in the Black Summer bushfires.

The Catholic health sector said it had experienced a 1000 per cent increase in stress and mental health issues among its staff during the pandemic, and they did not expect the resurgence in cases and deaths that have plagued Sydney in the past month.

The Morrison government has set out $2.6m in mental health funding directed to health professionals in the 2020-21 federal budget, but Catholic Health Australia director of strategy Rebecca Burdick Davies on Tuesday said the current support for health workers accounted for little more than “hotline numbers on a government website”.

“The government need to do a better job of supporting the people who keep the rest of us safe … During the GFC, we saw an industry-based, peer-led program for Queensland construction workers result in a 10 per cent reduction in the suicide rate,” she said.

“The Australian government rightly recognised the toll on firefighters after the 2019 bushfires and dedicated $11.5m to mental health services to support them and their families. We know the Australian government is aware of the mental health impacts our health workers are suffering, but helping our nurses and doctors should go beyond a tip sheet or a list of hotline numbers on a government website.”

Despite the criticisms on frontline support, the Prime Minister has made mental health a key plank of his Covid-19 strategy and invested $2.3bn in the last budget to psychological services.

Mr Coleman – who took over responsibility for mental health and suicide prevention last December – defended the government’s record on mental health support for frontline doctors and nurses. “In the 2021–22 budget, the government invested $2.6m to support the mental health of the health workforce as part of the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan. This investment will provide tailored mental health supports and reduce the stigma associated with health practitioners seeking help.”