Pat McGorry's Blog

A strong, decisive government can take ownership of Australia's mental health

Mental healthcare in Australia is not properly engineered in relation to the scale of the problem or the pattern of disease onset across the lifespan.

The number one roadblock to better care is the failure to integrate the community component of state-funded care with primary care structures, preferring to link it with inpatient and hospital-based services.

This is a legacy of the much-vaunted but ultimately disappointing mainstreaming reform of mental health services carried out in the 1990s.

Still waiting from last year's budget

While there is relief in some quarters that mental health has at first glance does not appear to have been cut in this budget, there are three areas of concern.

Better Access is one of the most valuable and effective steps in mental health reform in Australia in recent times. It has enabled large numbers of people to gain access for the first time to mental healthcare at the level of frontline primary care and to reduce the over-reliance on medication alone as the only practical strategy for GPs as first-line therapy.

There have certainly been problems with access and distribution and the level of expertise and quality of some practitioners, however the scheme overall has been a resounding success.

Improving our approach to diagnosis

In most branches of medical care, diagnosis is universally valued by patients and health care professionals as a critical step in providing appropriate treatment, predicting the future course of the illness and enabling patients and families to access key information and to realise they are not alone.

On Jim Stynes

THE spirit of Jim Stynes has been an inspiring and potent force for good in the world, spreading way beyond his personal space through the wider community in an extraordinary way, and it will continue to do so well into the future.

Dr. David Shiers, former joint lead of England's National Early Intervention in Psychosis Program recently visited Orygen Youth Health (the service I work for) and in this video reflects on the English experience of implementing a national early psychosis reform.

As Australia prepares to launch its own national early psychosis reforms through expanded access to Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centres, many of the issues raised by Dr. Shiers are directly relevant to the current Australian context.

Mental health is everyone's business

The stigma and prejudice that sends people experiencing mental ill-health to the back of the queue in the health system and isolates them in the workplace is being dispersed.

It isn’t just the “fair go” at work. It’s a matter of tapping the talent of people who experience mental ill health. Australian businesses would benefit more strongly from the national awakening on mental health, in terms of morale and the bottom line, if they embraced a rational and inclusive approach.

Yesterday I gave evidence to the Senate Inquiry into recent budget investments in mental health reform. This article - which first appeared yesterday on Croakey - summarises some of the key points of my presentation.

Letter to The Sunday Age

I APPRECIATE the opportunity to provide the facts in response to allegations of a conflict of interest on my part, which appeared in last week's Sunday Age.

I have no conflict of interest in relation to the mental health reforms announced in the May budget. I have no commercial interest in the youth mental health and early psychosis programs, which form one component of the reforms.

Pat McGorry's Blog

Why reform?

Take action!