The NSW government will fail to deliver meaningful change in response to the Parliamentary Inquiry into community and outpatient mental health care without significant additional funding.
The inquiry was initiated by the Greens in July 2023 to hear from people with lived experience and people on the front lines of providing mental health care. The committee is chaired by Dr Amanda Cohn, Greens spokesperson for Health including Mental Health and former GP.
Out of the 39 recommendations in the final report, the government has supported 24, supported 8 in principle, and noted 7.
Key takeaways
| Funding for the mental health system |
The NSW government has failed to support recommendations to increase and maintain funding across the mental health system, or to explore innovative revenue streams to fund mental health services. |
| Mental health crisis and emergency responses |
The government has supported several recommendations towards a health-led response to mental health emergencies, with police only activated as a secondary response to those emergencies (supported in principle). The government has not supported a recommendation to improve mandatory comprehensive mental health training for police officers. The government has not supported a recommendation to expand the Safe Haven program to be a 24/7 program where feasible. |
| Mental health workforce |
The NSW government has failed to support recommendations to increase pay for public mental health clinicians in line with other states, or to increase resourcing for formal clinical supervision. Recommendations to integrate peer workers into the broader mental health workforce and into emergency departments were supported. The government has supported recommendations to advocate to the federal government to address funding and workforce gaps in primary care and mental health services and to provide HELP fee relief for mental health priority courses. |
| Other recommendations |
The government has agreed to look to initiatives that provide mental health care outside of traditional clinical settings, explore opportunities for embedding mental health clinicians in general practice, improve service directories and system navigation, and implement best practice for data collection on gender and sexuality. The government has stated it is considering introducing 5-year funding agreements for NSW Mental Health Community Living Programs to improve consistency of care for consumers and growth and stability of the workforce, but that the availability of funding is a consideration. |
The inquiry comes after data released recently by the federal government shows that across 2022-23, 205,830 people aged 12-64 in NSW required psychosocial support but 166,040 were not receiving it. That's over 80% of those people needing but not receiving psychosocial support services. That percentage is second only to the NT at 82.3%.
As stated by Dr Amanda Cohn, Greens NSW spokesperson for Health including Mental Health, and former GP:
"There are some important steps forward to take out of the government's response. Commitments to bolster the role of peer workers, better integrate mental health care and primary care and streamline system navigation are important and welcome.
"After a long-fought campaign by the Greens, the government has supported moving to health-led responses to mental health emergencies. The fight continues now to ensure this is implemented in full so that people in crisis receive the care they need and do not come to harm at the hands of police.
"It's a slap in the face to hard working, skilled, and increasingly burnt out mental health clinicians that the government has not supported increasing their pay in line with other states. Services will continue to be understaffed and unable to deliver the care that people deserve while our health workforce moves interstate.
"These recommendations don't get pulled out of thin air within the walls of Parliament. They were informed by the testimonies of hundreds of people, many who relived painful memories and trauma to advocate for change.
"Without new funding for community mental health services, people across NSW will continue not to be able to access the care that they need, and the mental health system will continue to be reactive and crisis-driven," said Dr Cohn.
