Date: 17/01/2012
Source: Joint Media Release from Minister for Disability Reform, Hon Jenny Macklin, with the Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Hon Mark Butler MP.
Synopsis: Jenny Macklin and Mark Butler invited Australians to make submissions with respect to the release of the draft Ten-Year Roadmap for National Mental Health Reform for public consultation. Mr Butler said ‘COAG agreed to develop the Roadmap in 2011 and the Australian Government, States and Territories have been working alongside mental health experts and consumer and carer representatives to develop this draft’. The public comments will be used to develop the final roadmap for COAG to consider in early 2012.
The Roadmap will provide governments, the community sector, workplaces and communities with a guide as to the focus and funding over the next ten years. Mr Butler emphasised the need for further reform in Australia in the way of providing people with mental illnesses with all necessary levels of care when it is needed, particularly those who are vulnerable to slipping through the cracks in the system. Mr Butler also raised the need to break down the stigma, discrimination and misunderstanding that often surrounds mental illness.
The public will be able to make comments via a new online tool, available 17 January to 1 February 2012 on the mental health page of the Department of Health and Ageing website www.health.gov.au/mentalhealth. The Gilliard Labour Government has committed $2.2 billion over five years towards developing a better mental health system.
