More than 200 mental health workers have been forced to take part in a voluntary health check as a part of the national rollout of the National Health and Wellbeing Initiative (NHWI).
Health Minister Cameron Dickie said on Tuesday the check was designed to give people a baseline for mental health in the months ahead.
“We want to make sure we have a good base to make our transition to a health system that is better able to support them and their families,” Mr Dickie told ABC Radio Melbourne.
“The challenge is to get the population to understand that the NHWI is about their well-being, about their mental health, about the care they need, and that it’s about a community that is supporting them and is providing them with the support they need.”
Mr Dickie has said the NHN has been rolled out to about 2,000 frontline mental health professionals in Australia.
The National Health Service has been forced into a deep recession in recent years.
It has seen staff leave their jobs, many have struggled to find new ones, and the numbers of people needing psychiatric care have risen significantly.
Mr Dickies new $1.8 billion mental health funding package will see $50 million in additional funding to provide mental health services to the nation’s health workforce.
The new Mental Health Australia (MHAA) is also set to be rolled out in the next few months.”MHAA is a new agency that will have a responsibility to ensure that the nation has access to good quality mental health care,” Mr Morris said.
“Our aim is to deliver better outcomes and to deliver services that meet the needs of those who are affected by mental health.”MHAA’s director of services, Catherine Bays, said the organisation was working with the states and territories to deliver a high-quality, long-term mental health service.
“At a time when Australia faces the greatest economic challenge in its history, mental health is critical to economic prosperity and to providing the stability and stability that people want,” she said.ABC/wires
