Coronavirus: Victoria announces $868.6m toward mental health

The package will enable the government to implement all interim recommendations from its royal commission into mental health.

James Merlino Victorian Deputy Premier, addresses the media. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

The Andrews government has announced a package of almost $870m in new mental health funding, to be included in the 2020-21 state budget being handed down on November 24.

The $868.6m will enable the government to deliver on its promise to implement all interim recommendations from its royal commission into mental health, including $492 million to deliver 120 mental health beds in Geelong, Epping, Sunshine and Melbourne, adding to 24 “Hospital in the Home” beds announced earlier this year.

Premier Daniel Andrews acknowledged the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on an “already broken” mental health system, saying the package included COVID-related funding.

“The pandemic has really cast a very bright light on many weaknesses in many different parts of service delivery across our state,” Mr Andrews said.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews holding outdoor press conference in Parliament House gardens with Deputy Premier James Merlino. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

Another $18.9m will provide 35 acute treatments beds for public mental health patients in private health services, while $21.4m goes towards supporting the statewide expansion of the “Hospital Outreach Post-Suicidal Engagement” (HOPE) service, providing individual, intensive one-on-one support for Victorians who have been at risk of taking their own lives.

This will see services delivered in Albury-Wodonga, Bairnsdale, Ballarat, Broadmeadows, Box Hill, Clayton, Epping, Heidelberg, Mildura, Parkville, Shepparton and Warrnambool.

Mental Health Minister James Merlino said $2.2m would be spent on designing a new “Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing”, which would enable researchers and people who have experienced mental ill health to use that experience to improve the state‘s systems.

A further $16m will fund training positions, education and employment opportunities for former mental health patients to use their experience to support others, including $7.3m for a service designed and delivered by people with lived experience, and $8.7m to establish a residential mental health service designed and delivered by those with lived experience.

“This service will deliver short-term care and support in a residential community setting, designed as a true alternative to acute hospital-based care,” Mr Merlino said.

Another $1.9m, will assist allied health, nursing and medical graduates to work part-time in community mental health settings while completing their studies, while $3.1m will support experienced general nurses to retrain as mental health nurses, and $7.7m will fund specialist training roles in child and adolescent psychiatry to address the shortage of trained psychiatrists in these roles, including in regional areas.

A further $7.7m will be aimed at addressing workforce shortages in the mental health sector, including by enabling an increase in the number of junior medical officer psychiatrist rotations, graduate nurses and postgraduate mental health nurse scholarships.

There will be $20m to upgrade state-owned facilities across Victoria.

The budget will also include $47.8m for early intervention support for young people, as well as $7m for youth mental health research through Orygen Youth Health.

Other key Budget investments include:

• $19.4 million to support mental health clinicians at the Victorian Fixed Threat Assessment Centre;
• $4.4 million to improve culturally appropriate support for Aboriginal Victorians;
• $3.9 million for providing mental health and wellbeing support for asylum seekers;
• $152 million to support and provide mental health services in direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic.