information for practice

This report focuses on three key issues in the services delivered by the mental health system in Victoria:
1. Insufficient access to clinical services, with around 50% of people with mental illness not receiving appropriate care for reasons including:
> Failure to seek care or navigate the complexities of the system;
> Under-capacity or poorly distributed capacity in both the State- and Commonwealth funded sectors;
> Gaps in service targeting and eligibility between sectors, which result in poor access for some groups, including vulnerable clients who have very complex needs (e.g., comorbidities), but do not match clinical criteria for specialist services; chronically ill people with a range of non-clinical support needs that vary in intensity over time; and children at risk of future mental illness who may or may not be involved in the child protection system.
2. Lack of connectedness between parts of the mental health system, with many individuals unable to navigate ‘siloed’ services such as housing and employment to obtain consistent, ongoing support; and
3. Limited investment in prevention and early intervention, with many children and young people in particular not receiving support designed to forestall or avoid the escalation of mental illness.