$113m Mental Health Boost to Start 1 January

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PDF printable version of $113m Mental Health Boost to Start 1 January (PDF 19 KB)

30 December 2010

Hundreds of thousands of Australians with mental health problems will benefit from a $113.2 million boost in treatment and services from 1 January 2011, Minister for Mental Health and Ageing Mark Butler said.

Mr Butler said that the Gillard Labor Government’s mental health initiatives will significantly increase the local suicide prevention workforce where it is most needed, and provide more online services to help about 40,000 people find treatment and support over four years.

“The Government’s programs will address a range of areas - including assisting workers with depression, supporting men’s mental health campaigns and improve the mental resilience of hundreds of thousands of children.

“From 1 January, the Gillard Labor Government is progressively rolling out eight highly-targeted programs worth $113.2 million, and in mid-2011 we will roll out an additional seven mental health programs,” Mr Butler said.

Overall, the mental health programs will total $274 million over four years under the Labor Government’s Mental Health: Taking Action to Tackle Suicide election commitment announced in July 2010.

The initiatives commencing from 1 January include:

Mental Health First Aid training worth $6.1 million to be provided for frontline community workers to better identify and respond to people at risk of suicide or who have attempted suicide.

“This kind of support is shown to reduce suicide and will also help equip workers such as financial, legal and relationship counsellors with the skills to know what to look for and how to help people get the help they need,” Mr Butler said.

Online mental health and counselling services will also be expanded with an investment of $21.3 million to give people with mental health problems more ways to reach support services.

Over four years, this will provide online help for about 40,000 people, particularly young people and people who are reluctant or unable to access face-to-face mental health services.

Mr Butler said that successful existing mental health programs will be boosted to provide additional services.

“People at particularly high risk of suicide will be provided with proper coordinated care after their discharge from hospital following a suicide attempt or self harm event, following the national roll out of a successful pilot under the Government’s Access to Allied Psychological Services program.

“New funding of $22.6 million will see Divisions of General Practice and then Medicare Locals, when they are established, helped in their work to tackle suicide in high-risk groups in the community.

“This will boost suicide prevention activities among Indigenous people, men, gay, lesbian and bisexual people, and families bereaved by suicide,” he said.

Workers with depression will be aided through an $11 million boost in Government support for beyondblue’s National Workplace Program.

About 350 additional workplaces each year will be helped through beyondblue, which identifies and supports workers with depression - particularly blue collar and trades staff, plus people who work in small businesses.

Beyondblue’s information and referral helpline will receive a $3.2 million boost to particularly focus on helping men. This will increase the helpline’s capacity and reach and means it can provide vital information and assistance for about 30,000 more men each year.

Also, new men’s mental health and suicide awareness campaigns worth about $9 million will be run by beyondblue to benefit high-risk groups, including single men, fathers, older men, the unemployed, rural and Indigenous men.

CEO of beyondblue: the national depression initiative, Ms Dawn O’Neil, said the Government’s continuing focus on mental health is to be commended.

“This money will allow beyondblue to expand our national workplace program to deliver information to hard to reach groups, such as trades people and small businesses.

“The funds will also enable us to boost our information line service to answer more calls to help people across the country access services in their area”.

Mr Butler said the Australian Government will also provide an $18.4 million boost to the existing KidsMatter program – allowing 1,700 additional primary schools nationwide to promote good mental health and improve children’s resilience.

“This means the schools can tackle issues like bullying through giving about 348,000 children new social and emotional skills and helping our school environments to become more supportive,” he said.

Children with mental health and developmental issues will receive additional services through a $21.6 million boost to funding for the Access to Allied Psychological Services initiative.

“This dedicated funding will help Medical Locals work with local GPs, child and maternal health clinics, schools and other social services to develop linkages and support networks with local mental health providers. It will also help them to purchase services such as psychological services for parents and children.

“This will benefit more than 26,000 children with severe behavioural problems or mental health issues over the next four years,” Mr Butler said.

Work will also start on developing a new $60 million funding round under the National Suicide Prevention Program for community-led, grass roots suicide prevention activities targeted at high risk groups, such as Indigenous Australians, the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex community, and people bereaved by suicide.

For more information call Mr Butler’s office on (02) 6277 7280