Doorstop, Altona North, Melbourne, 5 April 2006 - AMA President Dr Mukesh Haikerwal

The Prime Minister has today announced $1.8 billion over five years towards mental health expenditure. This is very welcome and something that we have been calling for for quite some time. Obviously the COAG meeting that happened a few months ago flagged this as being a potential outcome.

If the state governments match dollar for dollar the $1.8 billion that is being spent by the Federal Government, it will still only be around 7% of health expenditure which will be spent on mental health. This falls way short of the 12% that the AMA and other organisations have called for and is even less than the 9% to 12% the Senate has called for.

So we do need to see the states pull … come into this as well. The Federal Government has put down the gauntlet and the state governments need to pick up the gauntlet and to come to the party.

JOURNALIST: And what role will the AMA take in pressuring the states to do that?

HAIKERWAL: Obviously the Federal AMA has worked very closely with the Federal Government, both the Health Department and the Prime Minister's Department, and we will be working with our State AMAs to work with the state departments to make sure we can make a difference in this area.

The federal initiative is about providing more capacity, capacity within general practice and capacity within psychiatric practice by allowing both GPs and psychiatrists to refer to psychologists and to refer to mental health workers like mental health nurses. That means they can exert and extend the role and the time available for psychiatry consultations by the GP and by the psychiatrists.

What we do need to see though is the Federal Government and their incredible commitment matched by the states. And this needs to be ongoing, it needs to increase as time goes by, because what we're seeing is an area that's been very much lacking in funding, very much behind the eight-ball, that not just … needs to catch up and move forward rather than simply stay behind the eight-ball further.

JOURNALIST: Is mental health in a state of crisis at the moment?

HAIKERWAL: Mental health is certainly in crisis across the country. Victoria is often held up as an example of best practice. If you talk to the Victorian psychiatrists and the Victorian doctors, they will tell you that it's important that it's not used as a model because care in Victoria needs significant boosting, it needs significant extra resources and it's important that the state governments follow through the Commonwealth Government and work collaboratively together.

We mustn't replace, or put on a parallel system. We must use the systems that are out there and use them … and leverage what we've got there already.

We need to make sure the environment is good for training, training of other psychiatric registrars and specialist psychiatrists and also psychologists and other mental health workers.

This is a very important initiative and it's something we've got to follow through with. We've got to follow through at a state level and a federal level.

We need to make sure the community is also provided for. We need community awareness, that's a very welcome program, but that should also include early detection, looking after young people before they get significantly unwell from the mental illness. Early detection, early diagnosis, early treatment.

JOURNALIST: So more needs to be done, but do you think the $1.8 billion will have much of an impact?

HAIKERWAL: The 1.8 billion is completely new money. It's a bolt out of the blue and it's a very significant injection from the Commonwealth Government and one we would strongly welcome.

We do have to point out that if it is matched dollar for dollar by the State Governments, that $3.6 billion would still only be about 7% of the health expenditure. It should be 12, we've got to play catch-up. It should be 12 if we want to have a high class, first class mental health system into the future.

JOURNALIST: And how significant are mental health issues in relation to other health problems in Australia?

HAIKERWAL: Mental health illness is a significant problem within our community. If we look at things like depression and anxiety, about 30% of people will be affected by it at any one time. And also the proportion of population that will be affected is very high.

If we look at the more significant mental illnesses, things like schizophrenia, things like bipolar disease, they're also quite significant in the community and also very poorly looked after.

The results today of people not having access to good mental health care are people with mental illness being treated in casualty departments and being shackled, hanging around for too long within emergency departments. We see people within community homes, housing for mentally disturbed and not receiving proper treatment and not receiving proper supervision.

The police are acting as de facto emergency teams. That's wrong. It's important we get mental health workers doing mental health, that they are supervised, they are working in teams, that those teams include doctors that can actually make diagnoses and make sure that people get proper guidance through their health care delivery and through the health care management.

JOURNALIST: Just lastly, this has been a long time coming, you said. When would you have liked to have seen an announcement like this made?

HAIKERWAL: Well, obviously we would have liked to have seen this announcement come through at the time of the COAG meeting a few months. We were told then that this will now be work in progress and something will be announced before June of this year when COAG meets again.

This is certainly a welcome announcement. It's something we need to pursue further. This is I would see a first step, not a last step. It needs to be followed through by more Commonwealth dollars probably and certainly by state matching. The Commonwealth has thrown down the gauntlet. The states must pick up and run with this, otherwise there will be lacking and the populations in each state that don't pick up will be in trouble.

Thanks very much.

ENDS