Better health and ageing for all Australians

1997-1998

Australia's Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services, Budget Document 1997-98

In recognition of the need for a strong national framework to ensure better outcomes for individuals with mental disorders, in excess of $28 million over four years has been allocated to maintain the momentum of mental health reform under the National Mental Health Strategy (NMHS).

In this section:

Fact Sheet 10

Commonwealth commits $28 million to the renewal of the National Mental Health Strategy

In recognition of the need for a strong national framework to ensure better outcomes for individuals with mental disorders, in excess of $28 million over four years has been allocated to maintain the momentum of mental health reform under the National Mental Health Strategy (NMHS).

The breakdown of new funding for mental health over the next four years is:

1997-98
$m
1998-99
$m
1999-2000
$m
2000-2001
$m
0.2
7.5
11.8
9.0

This funding is in addition to the $47 million the Commonwealth will provide to States and Territories in 1997-98 for reform of specialised mental health services under the Medicare Agreements and the Commonwealth's own expenditure of $11.7 million on national mental health projects.

Future payments to State and Territory governments to support the ongoing reform of mental health service delivery systems will be considered in the context of the renegotiated Medicare Agreements, due to commence in July 1998.

Substantial change in the design and delivery of mental health services has been achieved under the NMHS, which began in 1992 as a cooperative approach to mental health reform by the Commonwealth and States and Territories.

In particular, mainstreaming of mental health services into the general health system has been rapid, with two-thirds of acute psychiatric beds now located in general hospitals (compared with just over 50 per cent at the start of the strategy), a 28 per cent increase in recurrent spending on community mental health services and a 10 per cent decrease in expenditure on stand-alone psychiatric hospitals since 1992.

While supporting the ongoing process of structural reform in the mental health sector, Commonwealth priorities under the Strategy as of July 1998 (1) will be re-oriented (through the support of nationally significant projects) towards:

  • the development of cost-effective interventions, including promoting the development and Australia-wide implementation of outcome oriented information systems, and trialing and promoting more effective condition-specific interventions and approaches to service delivery. Particular emphasis will be placed on measurement and comparisons of outcomes across service sites and diagnostic groups, and reform of the mental health workforce.
  • the adoption of a stronger focus on mental health promotion and illness prevention, in recognition of World Bank/World Health Organization predictions that the proportion of the global disease burden resulting from neuropsychiatric disorders will increase from 10 per cent in 1990 to 15 per cent in 2020, and that depression will constitute the second most significant disease burden worldwide.
The Commonwealth will continue to work with States and Territories, which have primary responsibility for the delivery of specialised mental health services, to encourage the development of services which are appropriate for all ages and for those with special needs and/or different cultural background. Australians living in country areas, for example, frequently experience difficulty in accessing appropriate mental health services.

Mental health funding announced in the 1997-98 Federal Budget, as well as that which is directed to States and Territories via the Medicare Agreements, is in addition to the estimated:

  • $550 million the Commonwealth spends on specialised mental health services through the Medicare Benefits Schedule (for GP and private psychiatrists' consultations) and Pharmaceutical Benefits subsidies for psychiatric medications; and
  • $1.5 billion which provides income and disability support through a range of Commonwealth programs for people with mental disorders and psychiatric disabilities.

Footnote
(1) While the current NMHS does not cease until June 1998, the Federal Government has allocated funds in the 1997-98 financial year to enable developmental work to precede implementation of the Commonwealth's continued participation in the NMHS.

Contact: John Loy, First Assistant Secretary, Health Services Development Division, Phone: (06) 289 8083
Top of page