Community mental health providers say an alarming number of Canberrans aren't getting the psychosocial support they need, with many not receiving any care at all. They're urging political leaders seeking to form the next ACT government to commit to better strategies and more funding for the sector.
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00:00Sometimes called a hidden disability, a recent analysis found more than 10,000 people in the ACT have moderate to severe mental illness.
00:13This is people with such significant mental health needs that they can't live their daily lives or participate in this community unless they get a bit of help.
00:22And over 80% of those people are getting no support at all.
00:27It's not just a local problem. Globally, mental ill health accounts for nearly half of disease in people aged 10 to 24.
00:36They've survived a pandemic. In the ACT they've had bushfires, smoke, hailstorms, ongoing isolation and those sorts of things. Cost of living pressures, concern around employment.
00:49To meet demand, along with the Royal Commission into Health, the Canberra Liberals are promising $10 million for frontline services.
00:57A further $10 million to attract, train and retain mental health workers and more psychology, counselling and behavioural services in schools to be provided by an unspecified number of staff.
01:10I can't give you a specific number because we haven't gotten in and done the digging into the underlying issues that the Royal Commission is going to do.
01:18It's essential that we actually have the experts digging in and telling us what the right number is.
01:24Labor is promising 15 extra school psychologists and mental health practitioners.
01:30You cannot magic up psychologists so we need to develop the pipeline of workers in that space.
01:35In addition to psychologists we can turn towards working with other mental health specialists like occupational therapists, speech therapists and the like.
01:43Community mental health advocates say all the main parties are moving in the right direction.
01:48But they want to see more including around integration of services, better access to those services and early prevention.
01:55We absolutely have to centre children, young people and their family in the conversation so we can ensure that the money that we're spending is spent in the right way to meet their needs.
02:04Why can we not have a better vision of a well and connected community when we're one of the wealthiest per capita cities in the whole world?
02:12A question some hope will be answered at the polls.