Board Lacks Clinical Mental Health Expertise
AMA Vice-President Dr Choong-Siew Yong said today the AMA has concerns not a single mental health professional has yet been appointed to the Federal Government's new National Youth Mental Health Foundation's Advisory Board.
Board members, announced today by Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing, Christopher Pyne, include Olympic swimmer Grant Hackett and prominent businessmen such as AMP Ltd chairman Peter Mason and McDonald's Australia chief executive Peter Bush.
Dr Yong, a psychiatrist, said the Board may lack sufficient specialised mental health expertise to back up Hobart GP Dr Rob Walters, the only medical appointment to the Board.
"If the Government is genuine in its desire to improve the mental health of young Australians then it needs a solid base from which to begin," Dr Yong said.
"How about starting with the appointment of psychiatrists and other mental health experts to this panel, which is supposed to be telling the Government how to better support the nation's young people who have mental health, drug and alcohol problems?"
"The Government's $1.8 billion, five year mental health package announced this month should not be put to waste.
"When commitments like that are made they need to be followed through with legitimate action.
"There's an urgent need to properly address mental health issues for young Australians."
The AMA also has called on the Government to collect consistent national data describing the severity and extent of mental illness in children and young people.
"At the moment there's no consistency - each State and Territory collects its own data according to different guidelines," Dr Yong said.
"We need to quantify the problem before we can deal with it."