Almost 20,000 South Australians may not be getting the basic mental health support they need because of a lack of services and funding at a grassroots level, an independent review has found.
Key points:
- An independent review into South Australia’s mental health system has been published
- It has found up to 19,000 people are not receiving support they need
- It estimates an annual cost of $125 million to address the service shortfall
According to the report, as much as $125 million per year is needed to address the problem — but a lobby group representing local mental health workers has said the cost could easily be met by the state government.
The consultant’s report was commissioned by the state’s chief psychiatrist under the previous government to determine the level of “future investment required” to address the unmet need for the state’s mental health services.
It has now been released, days after the appearance of a full-page newspaper ad and social media campaign by the Mental Health Coalition of SA, which said that delays in the report’s publication were costing lives.
The review found there could be “as many as 19,000 clients not receiving some form” of support because of “substantial under-servicing”.
“There are insufficient psychosocial rehabilitation and support services available to South Australians experiencing mental health conditions and associated psychosocial disability across Commonwealth and state funded programs,” the report states.
It also noted “wide variation in resource allocation”, depending on whether delivery was under the aegis of the NDIS or other agencies.
Health Minister Chris Picton said non-government organisations such as Uniting Communities and Anglicare provide vital mental health support to thousands of South Australians, but that cuts in recent years have restricted access to home-delivery programs.
“It’s about that sort of preventative, early wellness end rather than the sort of pointier end of services where you involve psychiatrists,” Mr Picton told ABC Radio Adelaide’s David Bevan and Stacey Lee.
“There’s 19,000 people who could benefit and would benefit from being able to access these out-of-hospital services.
“There’s actually enough being spent across those services — it’s just that the vast majority is going to NDIS participants.”
Mr Picton said the public release of the report had not been prompted by the Mental Health Coalition’s campaign, and that it was already scheduled to go before cabinet.
Regarding the group’s newspaper ad, the minister said he shared the concerns of the chief psychiatrist, John Brayley, about the “way it was framed”, adding that the message “wasn’t consistent” with widely accepted guidelines on public discussion of mental health.
‘They could do it tomorrow’
Mental Health Coalition of SA executive director Geoff Harris said money to fix the shortage of services could easily be found within the existing state budget.
“The report says it will cost $125 million per annum to fix that up — that’s what we need,” he said.
“The state government has a surplus of more than that, they could do it tomorrow. I don’t understand why there’s a delay.
“Our sector is really anxious and worried that this report will come and go and that the gap won’t be fixed.”
But Mr Picton said a solution would require joint state and federal government input.
“The report specifically says that that needs to happen,” he said.
“What we’re going to be doing is undertaking a reform piece of work on all of our NGO-contracted services to make sure that we’ve got the … foundation of these services right.
“That work has already started and I’m hoping we will be able to complete that this year.”
Northern suburbs father Steve called ABC Radio Adelaide to recount his recent experience in trying to obtain support for his teenage daughter, but said that task had been made much more difficult because the system is in a “real big mess”.
“We tried to find some assistance through the Medicare-supported program that’s on offer … and there were no supported places available,” he said.
“We then tried to go through to see a private child psychologist — we tried probably five or six of them in Adelaide, and could not get an appointment for nine months, which I think is absolutely ridiculous.
“In the end, we’ve resorted to some counselling sessions that really do not touch on the heart of what needs to be addressed.
“These are kids that are hurting.”
Mr Picton said that while that kind of experience was “outside of what this report is about”, there was broader unmet need for psychologists and psychiatrists.
“There’s a real pipeline issue of getting psychologists out into the workforce around the country,” he said.
“Of the areas where there is unmet need, probably one of the highest is for our kids.
“That’s why we’re putting in place extra resources in our school, extra psychologists to work in our schools.”