About the support
Psychosocial supports are non-clinical supports and services delivered in the community. They are targeted to individual needs. They support people living with mental health challenges to live independently and safely in the community.
Goals
The programs we fund aim to help people living with mental health challenges:
- get the support they need to recover, and live independently and safely in their communities
- reduce demand on more intense and acute health services.
Meeting our goals
To meet these goals, we fund a range of programs and initiatives.
Commonwealth Psychosocial Support Program
Under this program, community-based organisations run one-on-one and group services for people with severe mental health challenges. They tailor their services to meet the day-to-day needs of the community and their clients.
Find out more about the Commonwealth Psychosocial Support Program.
Online service for people with complex mental health needs
SANE Australia (SANE) provides free, digital psychosocial support service for adults experiencing complex mental health challenges and trauma, and their families, carers and kin.
SANE delivers a range of individual, and group based digital mental health services, care coordination and service navigation through a centralised multi‑disciplinary team.
There is also a self-guided service, which provides drop-in channels for mental health recovery groups as well as individual counselling or peer support sessions. Individuals can also separately access resources and forums for information and support.
Services available through SANE aim to improve access to mental health services for people with complex mental health conditions, including those with co-occurring conditions such as intellectual disability.
This builds on a pilot program available for people living in 13 Primary Health Network regions and will be available nationally from 1 July 2025. The University of Queensland independently evaluated the pilot and produced the Final Evaluation Report. The evaluation found improvements in mental health recovery rates and quality of life outcomes among the target cohort.
Creative Therapies Pilot
As part of the 2023-24 Budget, $3.3 million (including indexation) was provided for a pilot program and evaluation in selected Primary Health Network (PHN) regions to test the impact of, and demand for, arts and music therapy services for priority populations as a complement to other longer-term supports, including clinical services.
Funding will be provided to selected PHNs to commission creative arts and music therapy services targeted to people with moderate to severe mental health challenges.
An expression of interest (EOI) process was conducted, with all 31 PHNs invited to provide a submission. Following the EOI process, 3 PHNs (Brisbane South PHN, Healthy North Coast PHN and Murray PHN) were selected to proceed to the formal grants round and were subsequently found successful to receive grant funding. These 3 PHNs will receive a share of $3 million over two years from 1 July 2025 to commission services.
The remaining $300,000 (with additional funds from existing resources) will be used towards an independent evaluation conducted by the University of Queensland – Institute for Social Science Research.
To assist with the independent evaluation, the Department has established an Evaluation Advisory Group (EAG) as a time-limited committee to provide advice and guidance to inform the design, delivery and evaluation of the Creative Therapies Pilot. The EAG will also help resolve any key issues raised during the evaluation in a collaborative way, in partnership with key stakeholders, including participating PHNs and stakeholder groups and provide assurance that the evaluation continues to meet its agreed objectives.
Unmet need analysis
On 16 August 2024, Australian Health and Mental Health Ministers released the Final Report of the Analysis of unmet need for psychosocial supports outside of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The report is accompanied by the Statement from Australian Health Ministers: Analysis of unmet need for psychosocial supports outside of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Future psychosocial supports arrangements
The Psychosocial Project Group is working with mental health stakeholders to respond to the findings of the unmet need analysis and inform future psychosocial support arrangements outside the NDIS.
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