8 April: Mental Health Coordinating Council and its members urge the NSW Government to commit to investment for the development of a community-managed mental health workforce framework for 2024-2034.
“We have identified that the National Mental Health Workforce Strategy 2022-2032 falls short of recognising the critical contribution that the community-managed mental health workforce represents,” says Dr Evelyne Tadros, CEO, MHCC. MHCC presents today a significant publication that identifies recommendations for Mental Health Workforce Solutions: Towards a strategy for community-managed mental health in NSW. This important paper highlights the community-managed mental health workforce as separate from public services and calls attention to the challenges for the sector on multiple fronts. “If the Government fails to address these challenges, we will continue to see people with mental health challenges primarily at the crisis end of the service system, and the working environment and conditions for the workforce is increasingly problematic,” Dr Tadros says. The publication identifies 10 areas for recommended solutions that builds on survey findings from the recent workforce profile report and is informed by consultation with the sector, contemporary literature and national advocacy. The 10-year framework should align with the recommendations proposed as well as address requirements identified in MHCC’s recent submission to the Inquiry into Equity and Accessibility and Appropriate Delivery of Outpatient and Community Mental Health Care in NSW. “A new 10-year framework is key to ensuring that people in need of crucial mental health services are supported at the right place, at the right time – by a skilled, well-resourced and sustainable workforce,” Dr Tadros says.
