With the pandemic ongoing and our lives during this ever changing, how do you guys view the mental health support services in Australia ATM?
How Do You Guys View The Mental Health Services in Australia?
Frogged on 23/11/2021 - 14:03
Last edited 23/11/2021 - 16:58 by 1 other user
Last edited 23/11/2021 - 16:58 by 1 other user
Comments
MHSS….
non-existent in other words….
Mental-ill health has been an issue well before the pandemic and governments have only recently begun to address it, so it's not really far fetched to say that there's a lot of room for improvement regardless of the pandemic. It's exactly the same for family violence, both are issues that have entered the mainstream in the last 5 years and the pandemic has only exacerbated the issue.
If you only care about these things only in context of the pandemic then arguably you don't really care about them. These are long term issues that require widespread and long-term reform.
Great response, it's always been here, but it's taken until now to start having some momentum in its need to tackle.
This response is spot on. About 5 years ago I spoke to a workcover insurer and they said that mental health claims were accelerating rapidly and this was before it had the level coverage that we do now. Needless to say, despite knowing this, businesses had next to no incentive to do anything about it outside of offering standard EAP.
It's good that there's increased awareness on mental health now, but the key thing is acting on it rather than "letting it pass"
ozbargain is the only mental health support I need.
Welcome back….
Thank you
There are not enough palindrome users on OzBargain…
With the pandemic ongoing and our lives during this ever changing, how do you guys view the mental health support services in Australia atm?
Is this your highschool English assignment?
fantastic initiative, crowdsourcing someone's PhD thesis
government would rather throw funny money to prop up already wealthy businesses with jobkeeper, than support mental health
I found the mental health services less useful when I'm not forced to share the trip to the workplace that's open office. Suicides went down during the pandemic despite the media bullshit, so there's that.
better compared to other countries.
Still crap. Mental health nurses are underpaid and work extra long hours due to being short staffed
What people don't seem to realize is that our mental health support systems are set up as Emergency Rooms not GP Clinics, they stop helping once you're stabilized and tell you to go somewhere else for long-term care
And that's fine, it should be how those services operate, most people don't need more than that. The second step for those who do is getting a mental health care plan and seeing a psychologist or therapist for a few sessions, which is at least slightly better now than it used to be with 20 sessions a year
But it's the third step where the system fundamentally falls apart, because it doesn't recognize that some people have chronic mental health issues. If you're lucky enough to be in one of 2-3 categories eligible for bulk billing psychiatrists, then there's often a 6+ month waiting list. Otherwise you need to pay $200+ per session after Medicare rebates, which is often once every 3-6 months if you need medication as they can't prescribe more than that, or once a month if you're adjusting to a new medication.
And once you run out of psychologist visits then you're almost completely out of pocket for them, which runs $100+ a session. Meds themselves are rarely under the PBS threshold, and most people are on several, which is also $100+ a month
This is made do-able with a health care card, which requires you to avoid working too much to lose it, as the extra hours you work are never worth it. Centrelink also doesn't consider any condition that can't potentially get better as a valid reason to not look for work, so you're handing in constant med certs until they finally take pity on you and give you an exception, which is a huge waste of resources. DSP is it's own nightmare if you're even able to qualify
The fact that you have to pay the full amount at most places and then wait for a rebate is financially crushing as well, a psychiatrist visit even with the safety net still means you need $200+ sitting in your account that you won't get back for a week, if you're not lucky enough to have a buffer then you just won't eat until you get it back. Combine that between 2-3 specialists or allied that don't do instant rebates, and you can be waiting on $500+ in rebates at a time
And the safety net is a wonderful thing, for the part of the year that you can use it, most people try to max it out at the end and then struggle while building it back up.
It isn't surprising at all that whenever the government announces new initiatives for mental health care, it's only ever for the first step, or sometimes for the second step like increasing sessions. If you've only seen that side, then it looks pretty clean and put together, but the façade quickly falls away as you get further in…
There are service out there, but you will only find out about them after you need the support and the NSW government health workers do not refer you to other areas that could help you out.
If you can find a NGO that helps like http://likemind.org.au/about-us/ you can ask then about other services and they will infom you about them near you and what you can access and how to access them.
I think the real issue is that our health system isn’t as good and isn’t as public as people make it out to be.
If you run into mental hardship you either jump through hoops to get ‘free’ help; or you pay a ton of money for psych/thera. Or, do nothing.
Imagine if you will, a health system where you get at the very least one free thorough health check every year. And get free referrals off that to whatever is required. And there’s detailed notes of your whole medical life on record for your benefit.
Instead, I can only imagine the situation today is very similar to ~7 years ago when I went to a GP, told a story, had a cry, and asked for meds (it was legit). Immediately got given meds and that was the extent of the treatment plan. In hindsight, that was a very weak diagnosis and treatment.
mental health support services?