The following is a summary of the Commonwealth's component of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) National Action Plan on Mental Health 2006 – 2011.
The Commonwealth's Individual Implementation Plan for Mental Health may be found in the COAG National Action Plan.
Printable PDF version of the following table (PDF 20 KB)
The first Progress Report (2006-07) (PDF 448 KB) on the COAG National Action Plan is also available on the COAG website.
Measure description | Implementing Portfolio |
| Additional education places, scholarships and clinical training in mental health Funding to increase the supply and quality of the mental health workforce. An additional 420 mental health nursing places and 200 post-graduate psychology places each year has been provided, as well as 25 full-time and 50 part-time post-graduate scholarships to nurses and psychologists. Mental health competencies and mental health clinical training has been increased across the health workforce, including medicine, psychiatry, nursing, psychology, occupational therapy and social work. | DEEWR / DoHA |
| Alerting the community to links between illicit drugs and mental illness The 2008/09 Federal Budget announced that the initiative has been discontinued. The funding will be provided to other priorities which will benefit the community. | DoHA |
| Better access to psychiatrists, psychologists, and general practitioners (GPs) through the Medicare Benefists Schedule (MBS)* Reforms to the Medicare Benefits Schedule to improve access to, and better teamwork between, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, general practitioners and other allied health professionals. Reforms allow private psychiatrists to refer patients to psychologists and general practitioners, encourage early assessment and management of people with a mental illness by general practitioners, and allow general practitioners to refer patients to psychologists and allied health professionals. | DoHA |
| Community based programs to help families coping with mental illness Local, community-based projects funded to support families, children and young people affected by mental illness. Projects target prevention and early intervention, with a particular focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and those from a culturally and linguistically diverse background. | FaHCSIA |
| Expanding suicide prevention programs Funding to expand and enhance national and community-based projects under the National Suicide Prevention Strategy. National research and development projects to increase understanding of suicide and how to prevent it have also been funded.Top of page | DoHA |
| Funding for telephone counselling, self-help and web based support programs Non-government organisations currently providing telephone counselling services provided with more funding to enhance the services they currently provide. New web-based counselling services will also be developed. | DoHA |
| Helping people with a mental illness enter and remain in employment Funding provides 2,500 additional places in the Personal Support Programme to help people with a mental illness who are not yet ready to benefit from the Job Network. Funding will also support people with a mental illness at risk of losing or leaving their jobs, and help evaluate and disseminate information on effective ways of providing employment assistance for people with mental illness. | DEEWR |
| Helping young people stay in education The Youth Pathways program has been increased to help young people who are experiencing a mental health problem and who are at risk of dropping out of school, including the provision of one-on-one assistance to identify services and professional support to help individual young people with their specific needs (for example, counselling, support to find housing or remain at home). This initiative, in conjunction with the Partnership Outreach Education Model, will assist an estimated 6,000 young people who are experiencing mental health issues. | DEEWR |
| Improved services for people with drug and alcohol problems and mental illness The non-government drug and alcohol sector funded to provide treatment for clients who also have a mental health problem. Best-practice models for intervention for clients with substance use and mental health co-morbidities will be identified and training will be provided for the drug and alcohol workforce. | DoHA |
| Improving the capacity of health workers in Indigenous communities Five new scholarships for Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander students undertaking studies in a mental health discipline, and 10 additional mental health worker positions will be created in Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander communities. A range of mental health training programmes and resources will be provided for the existing Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander health workforce to enable them to identify better mental illness and assist people to access appropriate treatment. | DoHA |
| Increased funding to the Mental Health Council of Australia The Council secretariat received additional funding to assist them to respond to an increased focus on mental health issues in the broader community.Top of page | DoHA |
| Mental health in tertiary curricula Funding to increase the mental health content in tertiary curricula through the development of mental health training modules for registered nurses, including the culturally appropriate management of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander patients. Provide students with clinical training in multi-disciplinary teams that include allied health, medical and nursing students. | DoHA |
| Mental health nurse incentive program New mental health nurses in private psychiatry practice, general practice and other appropriate organisations will assist people with serious mental illness to receive better coordinated treatment and care. They will work closely with the patient's psychiatrist or general practitioner and provide services such as home visiting, medication management, and improving links to other health professionals. | DoHA |
| Mental health services in rural and remote areas* Access to mental health services for people in rural and remote areas improved through funding for treatment services provided by appropriately training allied mental health professionals such as psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, and mental health nurses. | DoHA |
| More respite care places to help families and carers Funding for approximately 650 new respite care places to help families and carers of people with a mental illness or an intellectual disability. Overnight respite and day respite services to be provided for up to 15,000 families a year and priority access will be given to elderly parents who live with, and care for, a son and daughter with a severe mental illness or an intellectual disability. | FaHCSIA |
| New early intervention services for parents, children and young people Assistance to parents and schools to allow them to identify better children at risk of mental illness and to offer early referral for appropriate treatment. Resources, information and training for parents and schools will be provided to promote availability of new mental health services for children and young people with complex mental health conditions.Top of page | DoHA |
| New personal helpers and mentors Funding provided to the non-government sector to engage 900 personal helpers and mentors to assist people with a mental illness who are living in the community to better manage their daily activities. People with a severe mental illness will be assisted in accessing the range of treatment, income support, employment and accommodation services they need. | FaHCSIA |
| Support for day-to-day living in the community 7,000 additional places created in programmes that assist people with severe mental illness to provide access to structured activities such as cooking, shopping and social outings, and to help improve social participation through independent living skills and social rehabilitation activities. | DoHA |
Page currency, Latest update: 17 July, 2008
Help with accessing large files
When accessing large documents (over 500 KB in size), it is recommended that the following procedure be used:
- Click the link with the RIGHT mouse button
- Choose "Save Target As.../Save Link As..." depending on your browser
- Select an appropriate folder on a local drive to place the downloaded file
Attempting to open large documents within the browser window (by left-clicking)
may inhibit your ability to continue browsing while the document is
opening and/or lead to system problems.
Help with accessing PDF documents
To view PDF (Portable Document Format) documents, you will need to have a PDF reader installed on your computer. The Adobe Acrobat Reader is available free of charge from Adobe's website.