Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention
Before I begin, I’d like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we all meet today.
I’d also like to acknowledge individuals and families who have a lived experience of mental ill-health and suicide – those who are with us, those who we have sadly lost, and those who are bereaved by suicide.
And I welcome colleagues from the mental health sector.
I want to thank everyone who has been involved in the development of the Guidelines, including Margaret Doherty and Tim Heffernan who led the National Lived Experience (Peer) Workforce Development Guidelines Steering Committee and Lyndall Soper – Acting CEO of the National Mental Health Commission – and her staff for their comprehensive approach to this work.
And most importantly, to the people with lived experience, and those who care for them, who were instrumental in developing the Guidelines. There is a no more critical element to this project than your voices.
Lived experience is central to national mental health and suicide prevention reform and is a vital part of our mental health and wellbeing workforce, and will be increasingly so in the future.
A well supported Lived Experience workforce will deliver an improved system. The improvements in service delivery will result in benefits for people accessing services, families and service providers, and the broader community.
As its own discipline, Lived Experience work has distinct values, principles, and theories that define Lived Experience work and the way it is practiced.
And there is an incredible uniqueness to Lived Experience roles. Lived experience workers have unique knowledge, abilities and attributes.
They draw on their own life-changing experiences of mental or emotional distress, service use, and their journey of recovery and healing, to support others.
They understand the critical need to create opportunities for connection and use this expertise to offer hope.
They build relationships based on a collective understanding of shared experience, self-determination, and empowerment.
And they provide an important resource for change.
Every Lived Experience worker is a ‘change agent,’ supporting personal change in service users, and cultural and practice change in the service itself.
These qualities exemplify why Lived Experience work needs to be supported and embedded as an integral part of the way all mental health services are delivered.
The National Lived Experience (Peer) Workforce Guidelines are intended to strengthen understanding and collaboration across the mental health and suicide prevention sector and beyond, contributing to more effective services and, ultimately, better outcomes for people who access services within the sector, as well as their families, supporters and communities.
And the Australian Government is committed to working with the Lived Experience workforce to implement the Guidelines.
The mental health and wellbeing of Australians is a national priority for the Government.
Through this year’s Budget the Government demonstrated its commitment to strengthening the mental health and suicide prevention system, investing $2.3 billion in a National Mental Health Suicide Prevention Plan.
The Plan is focused on delivering a genuine shift in the national response to person-centred mental health, wellbeing and suicide prevention reform, and lays the foundation for a truly integrated national system.
The Plan includes five pillars for change that will help Australia achieve systemic reform
- Prevention and early intervention
- Suicide Prevention
- Treatment
- Supporting the vulnerable, and
- Workforce and governance.
Today I want to focus on the fifth pillar and the $202 million commitment to the mental health and suicide prevention workforce and governance.
It responds to the Productivity Commission and National Suicide Prevention Final Advice Recommendations relative to the mental health workforce.
It recognises the importance of our GPs, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses and allied health professionals. Most importantly, it recognises and supports investment in the peer workforce.
The mental health workforce, and the wider health workforce, are the most critical component of Australia’s mental health system.
This commitment ensures our mental health workforce is supported to provide compassionate, safe care – a critical enabler for our system and service reform.
The $202 million includes a $58.8 million investment to grow and upskill the mental health and suicide prevention workforce.
It includes $3.1 million to boost and support the mental health peer workforce and delivers up to 390 scholarships and opportunities for professional collaboration.
It also includes funding to conduct a scoping study to investigate options to improve consumer and carer engagement in the mental health sector.
The Government is committed to expanding, strengthening, upskilling and supporting the Lived Experience mental health workforce, so that they may continue to deliver services to those who need them.
The Government is committed to ensuring that lived experience is central to the mental health and suicide prevention system. It is the voice of lived experience that guides us towards compassionate, person-centred care
I once again thank every person who provided their lived experience voice to help shape the Guidelines, the Steering Committee and the National Mental Health Commissions for its dedication to the project, and our Peer Workforce, who are true Australian mental health leaders.
The Government is committed to ensuring the National Lived Experience (Peer) Workforce Guidelines will have an enduring, positive impact on how we work with people who experience mental ill-health.
Thank-you.
