Mental health malaise
A DAMNING independent report into Tasmania’s mental health services has revealed it is grossly underfunded and needs an extra $30 million a year just to deliver a national standard of care.
But Health Minister Michael Ferguson said the Government was meeting its obligations to mental health.
“I hear the call for an extra $30 million and we are actually putting in $104 million as a result of our commitment during the election campaign and that funding is now in the budget,” he said.
“As recently as three weeks ago I made a further announcement of $9 million so we can deliver hospital-in-thehome mental health by March next year.”
The State of Mental Health Report was put together by health policy analyst Martyn Goddard based on data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
It showed by 2015-16 the State Government’s share of Tasmanian mental health funding was by far the lowest in the nation, at 88.08 per cent, compared with a national average of 95.2 per cent.
The report suggests funding should be at least 20 per cent higher than the national aver- age to meet Tasmania’s greater mental health demand.
“If the Government says these figures are old and things have gotten better since then, they haven’t — they’ve gotten much worse,” Mr Goddard said.
The report showed Tasmania needed an extra 50 acute mental health beds to match other states, but to cope with demand it needed an additional 80 beds statewide.
Royal Hobart Hospital mental health nurse Ashley Howells said frontline hospital staff were frustrated because they were being forced to discharge patients from the mental health ward before they wanted to because the emergency department was full of mental health patients needing care.
“You feel like you’re attacking a brick wall with a spoon,” she said. “But sometimes we have no option because we have someone who is more unwell in ED and we have to ask who can cope better if they’re sent away.”
The report also found Tasmania has a greater shortage of psychiatrists than any other state; has seen an increase in mental health patients admitted to public hospital emergency departments; and has a lower rate of acute mental health beds than other states.