Mental Health Coalition

The Hon. J.S. LEE (Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:33): Today, I rise to speak about the important work by the Mental Health Coalition and more specifically about their advocacy work and the key findings of the psychosocial support unmet needs study in South Australia. I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge my esteemed colleague the hardworking member for Frome, Penny Pratt, for doing a fantastic job as the shadow minister for regional health services and the shadow minister for ageing, preventative health, mental health and suicide prevention.

As a regional member of parliament, Penny Pratt is the best representative on the ground to listen to concerns and issues of individuals, families and communities in regional South Australia within her portfolios of regional health, mental health and preventative health. I want to thank Penny for her ongoing dedication, diligence and hard work. Recently, Penny introduced the Mental Health Coalition to the Liberal shadow cabinet and provided this opportunity for me to speak about some of the important work undertaken by the Mental Health Coalition in South Australia.

One of the passionate advocacies of the Mental Health Coalition was to instigate a study to determine the level of shortfall and future investment required in non-government delivered psychosocial services in South Australia. The psychosocial support unmet needs study was commissioned by the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist, SA Health, at the request of the former Minister for Health and Wellbeing, the Hon. Stephen Wade MLC, prior to the 2022 state election.

The importance of psychosocial support cannot be underestimated. Psychosocial supports are defined as mental health supports that help people living with mental ill health participate in their community, manage daily tasks, such as catching a bus or going shopping, undertake work or study, find housing and get involved in social activities, such as attending movies or sports games and making connections with family or friends. This support is crucial in keeping people well and fostering a sense of belonging in the community.

The psychosocial support will assist those affected with negative mental health to avoid crisis care or ending up in emergency departments. Many people may not realise that the non-government mental health sector has lost funding and programs on the back of the rolled-out NDIS. There was an assumption that participants in unfunded, health-related programs will receive NDIS funding. What many people did not realise was that the NDIS does not account for recovery and is only for long-term mental ill health. The unmet needs study conservatively estimated that 26,000 people per annum with severe mental ill health required psychosocial support in 2021-22—latest figures would be more.

Of those, 3,200 people were receiving support by the NDIS and a further 4,489 from all other state and government-funded programs. That meant that some 19,000 people missed out on services and were put in limbo. The unmet needs represent approximately 75 per cent of the minimum threshold of people with severe mental ill health that require psychosocial services.

The report of the Auditor-General, 'Managing access to mental health services' 2022, also highlighted that in 2021 there were 27,468 mental health related emergency department presentations and 18,976 overnight admitted mental health hospitalisations, with 15 per cent of patients readmitted within 28 days of discharge. These are alarming statistics.

We already know that the SA health system is in crisis. It is important to understand that, when people receive access to community psychosocial supports, it dramatically reduces their needs for hospital-based crisis and emergency services and reduces ramping and wait times related to mental distress. The key recommendation is to ensure that there are cross-agency, interjurisdictional services for psychological supports to address unmet needs. The report estimated $125 million per annum is required to fix the shortfall.

Penny Pratt, our shadow minister, and the Liberal Party support the Mental Health Coalition in calling on the Malinauskas Labor government to begin closing the gap by allocating funding in the Mid-Year Budget Review 2023 to address unmet needs in psychosocial support services.