Two years later and a $125m mental health gap persists
Why does the State Government persist in investing in a model of mental health support which is unsustainable, asks Mental Health Coalition SA president Paul Creedon.
It was alarming to read media reports last week that Doctors in our Emergency Departments are asking for stab vests.
Sadly, once again the blame for violence and an overwhelmed ED is being placed on people presenting with a mental health crisis. While we hear from our State Government the constant unveiling of more psychiatric beds in our hospitals, this is in fact not the solution.
Today marks two years since the Government released its own report which said the way to deal with our mental health crisis is to invest in community based mental health support.
It was confirmed that 19,000 South Australians living with complex mental health challenges were not getting the support they needed to live well in the community and avoid crisis. To fill this gap, we simply need an investment of $125m per year in community based mental health support.
At the time Minister Picton said he would not take action until a National Report was complete. A year later it was, and what did it tell us? That our numbers were correct and we needed to invest in community based mental health support to fix this.
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Since then the Productivity Commission has also told governments twice that the way we deal with our mental health crisis is investing in community based support and not beds.
Our current system of mental health investment is focused on moving people experiencing mental health distress into a hospital bed and out of the Emergency Department.
While they receive treatment when there, it is short term support. Once they are discharged, without being connected to a community based mental health support, they run a high risk of being back there again within 28 days. How do we know this? Because the data tells us so.
What does the evidence also tell us? If you invest in community based mental health support not only does it pay for itself, the Government makes savings by reducing the need and cost of hospital based support.
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So the real way to stop ramping and over-flowing Emergency Departments with people in mental health distress is to help them to stay well. That is the support our members provide and are supports which help people in recovery manage their day to day lives. And should they feel they are slipping back into distress, they are connected to a service which can help them avoid the ED by diverting them to an urgent mental health care centre instead.
This is the solution the state governments knows, because their own reports say so. Yet what we are seeing instead, is an investment in beds – something none of their reports are telling them to do.
So why does the state government persist in investing in a model of mental health support which is unsustainable?
In a big portfolio like health where you are spending $6 billion it is easy to point to things you are investing in, and it makes it look like you are doing something.
But if what you are doing is not working you need to start asking, is this the best way to solve our mental health crisis?
With EDs at breaking point, and doctors calling for stab vests it is clear what the government is doing is not working. All these beds are not stopping people falling into crisis or living well in the community to avoid crisis all together.
So today, we just want to remind all South Australians that the evidence and findings are there – if we invest in mental health’s unmet need in the community then people can get the support they need.
If we do that, these South Australians may never touch the public health system because we help them avoid crisis altogether.
Paul Creedon is the president of the Mental Health Coalition of South Australia.
