Australia’s national plan to improve mental health and prevent suicide is “not suitable for the goal” and must be written again, according to a new report from the productivity commission.
The Commission has revised the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement that explains the shared obligations between the federal government and the governments of the State and the Territory to improve the mental health of Australians.
The Commission has now released an interim report that revealed that the national agreement was “fundamentally inadequate” and did not make real improvements in the mental health system since it was signed in 2022.
Commissioner Angela Jackson said that a major change would be impossible under the current agreement such as its results, such as “the reforming of the mental health system” were too wide and not easily measurable.
“Unfortunately we have discovered that there are elevated ambitions, but the actions taken under the agreement would never achieve those objectives,”
she said.
Australia is confronted with a crisis in the field of mental health, because more people need care for more complex circumstances, but cannot get the help they need due to staff shortages and a lack of mental health beds in hospitals.
Measures for mental health and suicide figures have not improved in recent years, according to the report.
More disturbing, the suicide percentage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people deteriorated between 2018 and 2023.
Co-commissioner and Gungarri-Man Selwyn Button said there were a series of initiatives that were not connected, which created a fragmented system and early intervention to prevent suicide to improve.
“There is still stigma connected to conversations with a doctor about suicide,” he said.
The committee said that the agreement entered into certain obligations, but did not spend on financing to achieve those goals.
For example, it describes a strategy to close the health gap for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, but no specific financing was allocated to do this.
“This really needs priority … and we have the expertise, we just have to get the right people at the table,” said Mr Button.
Dr. Clinton Schultz, a Gamilaroi man and director of First Nations Strategy at the Black Dog Institute, said that every national agreement needed to link research to the real world.
“We generate strong evidence about what works – especially in new treatments – but there is still no mechanism to bring that innovation into the public system. Until we bridge these gaps, we will continue to see missed opportunities to support our crowd in meaningful ways.”
Mrs. Jackson said that another important priority was to get financing for psychosocial support for people who are not eligible for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
Psychosocial support is non-clinical help, including connecting people with the right services and building up daily living skills.
Financing for this was withdrawn after the NDIS was introduced, leaving around 500,000 people without support.
“It is clear that the NDIS has led to important change for people with disabilities, but for people outside the scheme there has been a real reduction of support and this is a matter of urgency,” said Mrs. Jackson.
The Commission ordered the current agreement, which expires in July 2026, until 2027 will be expanded to give the government time to create a new agreement designed together for consumers, carers and service providers.
“The new agreement must have measurable results and more accountability … It is really important that everyone understands what improves and what is not,” said Mrs. Jackson.
Minister of Health Mark Butler said that the assessment emphasized structural issues with the agreement and it was “essential that we have this right”.
“That is why the treasurer and I ordered this assessment in the first place to get independent advice to inform our next agreement,” he said.
“The interim report is ambitious in what it has outlined, the scale of the required reform and the need for governments to take the sufficient time to get it right.“
Mr. Butler said two weeks ago that the ministers of the state and the territory agreed that psychosocial, workforce and mental health of youth would be priorities in the next national agreement.
The productivity commission now accepts more public entries before preparing a final report later this year.
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