Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

It is always sad when the opposition plays politics with a subject as important as mental health. Because I know that many people listening are actually interested in what these reforms are, I will just keep talking and I will try to ignore the interjections.

For the first time, service delivery will be tailored to the consumer and their needs, depending on where they are on a spectrum that the sector often calls stepped care. This does not relate to a set of steps where you start at the bottom and finish at the top; this means that whatever your needs are, depending on the step that you are on, you should receive them.

Coming back to what Professor Hickie said this morning, and he put it very well, it is not about him as a clinician and where he might want to practise and what he might want to do from his geographic location; it is about where the consumer is and what they are entitled to and what they can access—because one of the key benefits of this reform is that it will actually see professional resources come away from our capitals and into our regions, because the regional contracting and commissioning that will be done through the Primary Health Networks will pick up what local needs are

The consumer advisory committees at Primary Health Network level will be informing the model, informing best practice and making sure that those who, up until now, have been missing out receive the care that they need. This includes people discharged from acute mental health facilities who fall through the cracks every time. They are discharged from an acute episode into nothing at all. They will have an individualised care package. They will have something and someone to wrap the resources around them. Digital transformation will mean that one digital mental health gateway will exist for everyone. It is not a matter of 'Take a ticket and wait in a queue.' Help will be right here and right now, when you need it and at the time you need it. For example, for a young person at two o'clock in the morning or an older person when normal phone lines have closed, there will be a voice at the end of the phone navigating the way through a complex system. We are delighted that every single cent of the almost $10 billion that the federal government allocates for primary mental health care will finally be used at the end point of looking after the consumer, the carer, the patient—the person on a difficult journey through our health system.

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