Tasmania will receive $1.7 million over four years as part of a national psychosocial measure announced on Saturday.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the measure was designed to “help people for whom the NDIS was not designed, but who will benefit from specialised but less intense psychosocial services”.

Mental Health Council of Tasmania chief executive Connie Digolis said the announcement was a step toward understanding the scope of care within the NDIS.

“This is really an acknowledgement that some people are likely to be ineligible for the NDIS,” she said.

“Federal and state governments obviously want to work together to ensure there is a continuity of care once we go full scheme.

“As a council, we have been lobbying both levels of government to understand that while the decision was made to roll out the funding for certain programs as part of the NDIS, there were still people within those programs who would not be able to go across to the scheme.”

Psychosocial support services can include a range of non-clinical supports, such as vocational and social skills training, as well as drug and alcohol addiction support. 

Last year, the Mental Health Council of Tasmania predicted up to 30 per cent of Tasmanians who receive assistance will be ineligible to receive support under the NDIS.

Ms Digolis said the council would continue to work towards “risk mitigation” when it came to the scheme.

“The most important thing for us is to be able to anticipate there might be gaps before they happen,” she said.

“We’re really undertaking those processes to be able to proactively understand and define where we may see those gaps.

“An acceptable scenario would be to say that people who require psychosocial support services are no worse off with the introduction of the NDIS.”