Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The government’s $1.6 billion investment in subacute care beds will help provide more step-up and step-down subacute services for people with mental health needs, easing their transition from acute care to the community. Furthermore, this means that patients can be given more appropriate and timely care out of a hospital, helping them to get the treatment that they need more quickly.

As part of the establishment of the National Health and Hospitals Network, the Australian government will also undertake structural reforms so we can improve mental health services in the future. The government will take full funding and policy responsibility for primary health care, including mental health services for common disorders such as anxiety and depression, including those currently provided by the states and territories. The government will also establish Medicare locals in communities across the country who will be a platform for providing better coordination of primary healthcare services and help address gaps in services, including for Australians suffering from mental illnesses. Furthermore, the government also agreed with the states and territories that it will consider changes to roles and responsibilities for specialist community mental health services which the Council of Australian Governments is considering in 2011. These are important first steps, and the government is acting to put the foundations in place so that it can improve mental health services into the future.

On the question of the overall investments that we have undertaken within mental health in the most recent budget, let me further inform the House that $78.8 million will be spent over four years to deliver up to, as I said before, 30 new headspace sites around Australia, providing extra funding for these sites and expanding telephone and web based support services for young people.

See this speech in context