The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) has welcomed the $648.6 million of new mental health investment outlined in the budget but says key reforms are still required to improve patient care for all Australians.

The RANZCP President, Associate Professor Vinay Lakra, said some well-targeted pockets of investment were announced, but stressed that any strategic recovery from COVID-19 and recent climate-related disasters must also address underlying system gaps made worse by these events.

‘We commend the $89.2 million overall to bolster the mental health workforce and enhance governance in this critical area’, said Associate Professor Lakra.

‘This includes $28.6 million to sustain growth in the psychiatry workforce and build on previous investments by continuing to support up to 30 additional training posts and supervisors each training year from 2023–2026, to address workforce maldistribution and shortages.

‘There is also recognition of the need to encourage more medical graduates to pursue psychiatry through support of the RANZCP’s Psychiatry Interest Forum.

‘It is only through sustained growth in the psychiatry workforce that we will begin to address the critical shortages of specialist services so many people are experiencing.

‘We have strongly advocated for a raft of other specific workforce initiatives to meet current and future demand for psychiatry services, and to ensure public access to affordable and quality care, and we urge the government to revisit these as a matter of priority.’

‘We also applaud the focus on supporting people in suicidal distress and the $46 million allocated for suicide programs and research, as well as new regional initiatives for suicide prevention.’

The RANZCP welcomed the commitment to permanent telehealth and reiterated the need for policy refinements to ensure care is accessible for people with socio-economic disadvantage, in both rural and metropolitan areas.

‘There are easily implementable bulk-billing incentives that would support the provision of affordable services to people with mental illnesses who are unable to get the care they require.

‘For access to mental healthcare to be equitable, services and treatment must be affordable for all and there is a lack of solutions on this front.

‘We would also like to see the Government act on the Select Committee’s recommendation to promote a wider range of best practice options for suicide prevention.

‘The establishment of clinical registries for mental health would provide access to timely, high quality and reliable national data to inform clinical planning and important decisions on policy, programs and funding.

‘The development of clinically appropriate patient outcomes measures would also go a long way to helping mental health and suicide prevention professionals track outcomes of care to ensure the right care is being offered.

‘With so many and varied initiatives announced in the budget, the RANZCP looks forward to working closely with the Government on their implementation and evaluation’, said Associate Professor Lakra.

‘We need to ensure that all Australians have appropriate access to the range of services that they require to fulfil their potential and improve their quality of life, especially in these challenging times.

Other key mental health commitments included:

• $372.4 million to reduce the impact of alcohol and other drugs
• $67.2 million for multidisciplinary care teams to deliver trauma-informed therapies for survivors of family, domestic and sexual violence
• $39 million to ensure all Australians have access to culturally safe and appropriate mental health services
• $31.2 million in mental health initiatives to support those impacted by recent floods
• $20 million over four years for specialised eating disorder treatment services
• $15.1 million for new MBS items to facilitate collaboration between general practitioners and other mental health professional such as psychiatrists
• $8.5 million to provide culturally safe and appropriate mental health support in remote communities
• $2.2 million to support the mental health of the health workforce (Hand-n-Hand program), and the extension of the Black Dog Institute’s The Essential Network (TEN).