A $1.45 billion federal funding boost for mental health services has been welcomed by Tasmania’s Primary Health Network.
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Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt announced the funding on Wednesday, along with a model shake-up designed to provide better security for jobs and services.
The funding will be provided through Australia’s 31 PHNs and be secured for three years from July 2019.
While it’s not yet known what proportion of the funding it’s set to receive, Primary Health Tasmania’s mental health spokesman Grant Akesson said any long term investment in services was a “significant step in the right direction”.
“We think anything that provides longer term funding for mental health services is fantastic and the opportunities that will arise from that with our funded services will be really positive,” he said.
“We’ve now got services on the ground in Tasmania, across the continuum of care from mild to moderate, to severe and complex.
“What we are hoping this will provide us with is the opportunity to sure-up some of those services and provide them with commitments going forward.”
PHNs coordinate support for child and youth mental health, psychological therapy, severe and complex illness, community-based suicide prevention and Indigenous mental health.
Between June 2017-2018, Primary Health Tasmania-commissioned providers treated more than 3300 children/adolescents through statewide Headspace services and provided psychological services to more than 4700 people living in rural and remote communities.
Mr Akesson said access to services remained one of the biggest challenges.
“Tasmanians seek more mental health care services from GPs than the national average,” he said.
“So anything that enables us to increase the availability of mental health services – and not just in the city, but in the rural and remote communities as well – will provide us with significant advantages that we don’t have at the moment.”
- Lifeline 13 11 14