Demand for action on mental health from experts

ABOUT 70 mental health experts and organisations will this week deliver a letter to Kevin Rudd urging immediate improvements of the sector.

ABOUT 70 mental health experts and organisations will this week deliver a letter to Kevin Rudd urging immediate improvements of the sector.

The signatories -- who include Australian of the Year Patrick McGorry, the Mental Health Council of Australia, Lifeline, the Australian Psychological Society and the Australian Medical Association -- say the need for reform is urgent and action is needed much sooner than the government's timeframe.

Presentation of the letter at Canberra's Parliament House on Thursday -- six days after the shock resignation of the government's top mental health adviser John Mendoza -- is likely to increase the heat on the government over the issue.

Anger from the aged-care sector is also rising, following reports Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner told a Labor figure privately there was no money for dental, mental or aged care -- a claim flatly denied by the minister.

National Seniors chief executive Michael O'Neill said the reported comments were disturbing if accurate, because there were critical short-term issues for older Australians such as wage increases to attract staff to the aged-care sector.

Peak mental health bodies say the sector is close to despair and that they are struggling to understand the "gap between the government's rhetoric and action".

In the carefully worded two-page letter, the signatories welcome the government's "commitment to reshape mental health services" but pointedly add that they "look forward to your government announcing a plan to achieve change on a genuinely historic scale".

"It is our shared view that the unifying goal of the Australian government's new role in mental health must be to end the inequality in access to quality care between mental and physical health," the letter will say.

"We therefore request that your government explicitly makes its core policy objective in mental health achieving ready access to quality mental health care based on need."

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon last night defended the government's commitment to mental health, pointing out that spending on mental health programs had nearly doubled to $940.2 million in 2008-09, compared with $516.5m between 2004-05 and 2007-08.

"The government has acknowledged that this funding is a downpayment on further reform," Ms Roxon said.

Professor McGorry said the money was not nearly enough.