Dear Subscriber,
On Wednesday we released our advocacy campaign for the upcoming Federal Election.
The campaign calls on the Federal Government to reflect on and uphold commitments made as part of the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement at both State and Federal levels, calling on political leaders to:
- Commit to driving national mental health, suicide prevention and stigma reduction reform across Australia.
- Respect each jurisdiction’s deep and inherent understanding of their own region’s mental health and suicide prevention needs.
- Fund place-based, person-centred, equitable and affordable mental health care.
- Prioritise comprehensive state-based mapping of services and demand for psychosocial supports as outlined in the National Agreement.
Specifically, our campaign advocates for three initiatives that put an increased focus on prevention and early intervention, ensuring everyone has access to the information and supports they need to be healthy and happy:
1. A stigma reduction pilot campaign designed to reduce discrimination against people experiencing mental ill-health, and encourage people to seek help early for their mental health, a goal which is set out as part of the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement which the Federal and State Government’s agreed to in late 2021.
2. Reinstatement of Medicare rebates for telepsychiatry services, which were removed in early 2022. Tasmanians accessed Medicare rebates on telepsychiatry services over 8000 times in 2021, with the removal of those items from Medicare leaving many people struggling to afford the services they rely on to stay well.
3. A commitment from the Federal Government to guarantee ongoing funding for psychosocial supports for people who are not eligible for the NDIS. Without funding for these community based supports, there’s a very real and worrying risk that the people who access them will see a serious deterioration in their mental health and quality of life
We've already seen opposition leader Anthony Albanese last week announce that a Labor Government would reinstate the Medicare rebates, which is a promising sign that mental health and wellbeing are high on the agenda of election priorities. It is our hope that over the coming weeks as we get closer to election day, we will see more announcements related to mental health and wellbeing from all sides of politics. Until then I will be continuing to meet with as many candidates as possible to discuss the things that Tasmanian's needs to live healthy, happy and productive lives.
You can read the full details of our advocacy campaign, via our website.
Connie Digolis,
MHCT CEO
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