So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past - Continued inaction on public mental health services

Abstract

Psychiatric care in Australia remains underfunded when compared to physical health. In 2014–2015, mental health received around 5.25% of the overall health budget while representing 12% of the total burden of disease (Australian Medical Association (AMA), 2018). This is despite numerous enquiries, commissions and reviews (Rosenberg et al., 2015). One consequence is that acute bed occupancy rates are so high, and average length of stay so short, that Australia has the third highest readmission rate among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries for patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, and the fourth highest unplanned readmission rate for mental health (Allison and Bastiampillai, 2015). Such underfunding and its consequences are emblematic of the neglect of public mental health services in Australia. Inaction persists in spite of two recent examples demonstrating the consequences of neglect in the past year: the mental health bed and staff shortages at Royal Hobart Hospital in 2017 and the life-threatening dereliction of care uncovered by the Oakden Aged Mental Health inquiry in 2018.