TRUDY MCINTOSH, HOST: Mental health groups have long warned that funding and services are failing to keep up with growing demand, particularly in regional Australia. I’m joined now by the Assistant Minister for Mental Health, Emma McBride. You've announced today around $28 million to help deliver a network of headspace outreach services. Is that still a drop in the ocean of the need that is out there?
ASSISTANT MINISTER EMMA MCBRIDE: Trudy, we know that in Australia there is a large and growing need for mental health services, and that is compounded in the regions by remoteness and isolation. This announcement is building on the $1.1 billion investment that we made at the last election, the largest investment ever made by Commonwealth in mental health, and more than $700 million directed towards youth mental health given the large and growing need amongst young Australians.
MCINTOSH: Today we saw these pretty staggering new figures out from the Institute of Health and Welfare. It showed a big rise for younger Australians experiencing mental health issues. One of the things that jumped out to me in this, Emma, was that it found younger women are accessing support at twice the rate of younger males. Do we need to do more to get younger men to actually reach out for these supports that are being put out there?
MCBRIDE: We do. And we've seen since headspace was first introduced 20 years ago, about one in five young Australians experienced a mental health challenge in any 12-month period - that has now doubled. It's encouraging to see more young women seeking support. But what I think these outreach services will do by bringing support closer to home and reducing the barriers of distance and time and cost will mean that more young men, particularly in the regions and more remote parts of Australia, will be able to access support sooner and get that wraparound care they need for counsellors, psychologists and social workers.
MCINTOSH: One of those barriers that does get raised here is the cost. It can be so hard for people to find bulk billed support. If you’ve managed to get into a psychologist, if you can get that appointment, there is often a huge out-of-pocket gap that people face. And that's one of the hurdles that people who already kind of would feel reluctant to go then face this financial cost as well. Is the system currently failing people who can't afford to pay for this sort of care?
MCBRIDE: What we've wanted to do is make sure that we remove any barrier to accessing care. I'm a mental health clinician myself. I worked in a regional hospital and saw people's distress escalate to crisis simply because they couldn't access support. We're now introducing free support backed by Medicare across the lifespan - kids hubs for nought to 12’s, boosting headspace for 12 to 25’s, and our new Medicare Mental Health Centres for adults, so that at whatever stage of life and whatever your needs are, there's care available for you for free and closer to home. And in August we’ll have the campaign launch for our new free digital service to reach all Australians, wherever they live, free and on their phone.
MCINTOSH: But is the reality, though, for some, when people go to their GP they get a referral for a mental health plan, they then go to a psychologist and then they find that it actually isn't free, that there's this gap cost on top of that people have to pay. There is still work that needs to be done to make that system accessible for people who can't afford to pay that extra. What is it - $100 sometimes on top of it?
MCBRIDE: And that's what we're working to do by working to grow the pipeline of psychologists and psychiatrists by introducing free services. Our new Medicare Mental Health Centres have a virtual network of psychiatrists linked to them, so that if someone does need a psychologist they'll also be able to then see them free backed by Medicare. As a mental health clinician myself and someone who's worked in a regional hospital, I'm determined to see any barrier to care removed so that people - all Australians, particularly young Australians - get that care sooner.
MCINTOSH: We've been looking at this issue across the week, Emma, on this program about veterans' mental health and, in specifics, the concern about suicide rates. I put to your colleague, the Veterans Affairs Minister, concerns about Labor's $5,000 cap on allied health services - it's due to come in for veterans next year. Phil Thompson, a Liberal MP but a veteran himself, says the feedback he gets directly is he's concerned from veterans that cap will cause awful outcomes. Should there be a rethink on whether this is the best approach?
MCBRIDE: I understand that there is a consultation period, and I'd encourage any of your listeners who are interested, as I let a veteran know yesterday, to register to be part of the consultation period so that we make sure that we listen to veterans and hear their firsthand experiences. From what I understand from the Veterans Affairs Minister, that less than one in 10 veterans currently reach the cap. And if someone does exceed the cap, support will be made available to them - tailored to meet their needs. It’ll also mean, in talking to a veteran yesterday, that they don't have to go back to a GP every 12 sessions to get another referral. And importantly for allied health professionals, they'll now be paid more to see veterans, which will open up access to more exercise physiologists and physiotherapists for example - important access and a big boost to veterans.
MCINTOSH: We'll watch that consultation process very closely. A final one, Emma. The Telstra outage, it's just shocking to see how this is still happening – access to Triple Zero for over 600 people couldn't happen as a result of the outage. I also wonder of the other side of things, people's phone calls to mental health lines likely to have been impacted if they were with Telstra at the time and didn't have service. Do we need more redundancy there as well?
MCBRIDE: What we've seen is a really robust response from our Government to this widespread and very disruptive outage. The establishment, the legislation of the Triple Zero Custodian is a really important measure to make sure that any person that was seeking support and wasn't able to connect has a welfare check followed up. A big increase in the penalties as well, more than $30 million, and ACMA right now investigating what happened. Because Telstra needs to be made accountable. We want to make sure that any Australian, whether they’re calling Kids Helpline or Lifeline or Triple Zero are connected and get support immediately.
MCINTOSH: Yeah, a good message. Emma McBride, great to see you. Thanks for coming on. Appreciate it.
MCBRIDE: Good to be with you.