More kids in crisis, suicides rise: Despair as tsunami of psychiatric ill-health sweeps Victoria

3 months ago 11

Young people and those in psychiatric crisis are faring the worst in Victoria’s overflowing mental health system, prompting calls for a rethink of how royal commission-led reforms are being rolled out.

An independent review of the state’s mental health system, incorporating the views of those using, working and operating services, highlights concerns that efforts to rebuild the broken system may be falling short.

Young people are fairing worst from the overcrowded mental health system.

The report by peak body Mental Health Victoria found nine out of 10 of those running mental health services do not believe the system can meet current demand. It also found most community members feel more government funding is needed to cope with a post-pandemic tsunami of psychiatric ill-health.

Their views were underlined by almost two-thirds of mental health workers – surveyed for the State of the Sector Key Insights Report – who stated they were pessimistic about the future of the mental health system.

The mental health royal commission’s February 2021 final report included 65 recommendations as a blueprint for a new Victorian mental health system, but the latest data and survey results raise doubts about their effectiveness in a post-COVID setting.

Victorian Health Department figures reveal mental health-related emergency department presentations have risen almost a third over the past decade.

Children and adolescents seeking mental health services have climbed 41 per cent since the start of the pandemic.

Victoria’s suicides have also risen by 7 per cent since the pandemic, despite reductions in NSW and Queensland.

Official data shows Victorians’ use of alcohol and other drugs has dropped by 28 per cent since the pandemic, however other mental health risk factors including social isolation, family violence, financial insecurity and homelessness have all risen post-COVID.

Mental Health Victoria chief executive officer Phillipa Thomas said the insights of hundreds inside the sector warranted a review of whether the implementation of the royal commission’s recommendations were having the intended impact.

“If we’ve invested money in the first five years of reform with the assumption that it would change any of these metrics, and it hasn’t, what does that mean for the rest of our reform program?” Thomas said.

“Because we remain quite focused on the royal commission recommendations we might not be thinking enough in contemporary terms, or we might not be looking at what’s happening around us in real time to notice changes to make sure that we’re responding in the right way.

“We still see things such as school refusal is very high, we know that eating disorders have increased... these are quite possibly the first signs of the downstream impacts of COVID that are popping up now, and we might find ourselves as a mental health system needing to respond to a lot of things that we didn’t predict.”

According to the mental health sector report released on Thursday, social isolation is the main driver of rising mental health issues, while cost-of-living pressures are also having a big impact.

More than $6 billion has been invested in the sector since 2018 and the Mental Health Levy, introduced in 2021, now contributes one-third of the state’s mental health output funding. But those operating mental health services report that they are not close to meeting demand, and are not seeing patients anywhere near as frequently or early as they need to.

Half of Victorians needing mental health help wait more than a month for an appointment, and most then have to pay more than $100 from their own pocket.

All levels of those involved in the mental health system agreed that children and young people, as well as those experiencing crisis, were in the greatest need of improved services.

They also agreed that funding preventive and early intervention programs needed to become a priority, as well as better focused programs for the most critically ill.

Thomas said using data to adapt the royal commission recommendations to changing circumstances and rising needs would have a greater impact than continuing in a rigid rollout planned in 2021.

With workforce shortages set to continue impacting the ability to roll out new assets across the state, Thomas said realigning those already in the system – such as placing a 24/7 crisis assessment team in every health service – to the highest needs, needed to be made a priority.