Better Managing Complex Mental Illness in the Community: Delivering Specialised Care Packages, at Scale, Thorough Multidisciplinary Networks of Practice

We have previously illustrated priorities for reforming primary mental health care in Australia. We have also described broader reform opportunities to enhance access, overcome inequity and improve the quality of mental health care.

The evidence is clear that such reforms cannot be achieved by existing workforce and service models alone. Simply growing the workforce or spending more on existing services (largely through increased payments to existing providers) will not be enough.

Rethinking Mental Health In Australia: adapting to the challenges of the COVID-19 and planning for a brighter future

This report reflects the engagement of many mental health leaders in a series of events over recent months. In late 2019, in parallel with the enquiry of the Productivity Commission, the Brain and Mind Centre (BMC) and the Sydney Policy Lab (University of Sydney) and the Centre for Mental Health Research (CMHR) (Australian National University) jointly hosted a two-day forum to consider urgent reform priorities. In November 2019, as part of project undertaken with the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses, the CMHR hosted a national meeting to evaluate the current state of mental health planning.

Sydney Mental Health Policy Forum: strategic, systemic and structural options for Mental Health Reform in Australia

This paper has been prepared by the Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney and supported by the Sydney Policy Lab. It reflects engagement with Australians for Mental Health and a group of almost 50 key stakeholders expressing provider, consumer, carer and other mental health perspectives. This group is known as the Sydney Mental Health Policy Forum. The Forum’s aim with this paper is to describe opportunities and priorities for strategic, systemic and structural changes mental health reform, starting now. We acknowledge that mental reform will require a whole of government, community-wide response.