The State Budget did not have much focus on new mental health announcements.

Our Budget Submission requested that the Government make a modest start on addressing the known issue of unmet need for psychosocial support by investing $10m.

The response from the Government was that they would look at this request once the unmet needs study was complete, even though the Productivity Commission in 2019 calculated that 11000 people with severe mental illness had a need for community psychosocial support that was unmet.

The unmet needs study has been completed but not been released and nor has there been a response from the Government.

Our budget statement is: 

“This State Budget does not address the needs of thousands and thousands of people living with mental illness in our community who are not getting support.

South Australia pays 61% more per person per day for an inpatient bed for mental health than the rest of the country. We are dealing with tight budgets in the coming years and this Government needs to look at investing in community based mental health support which will reduce demand for other mental health services.

The Government can put money into community based mental health supports which will cut back ramping and create savings in the health budget. It is less expensive and delivers higher returns as people get the support they actually need to stay well.

This Budget is a missed opportunity to reduce the massive gap in community support.

We already know there is unmet demand for mental health services, and this Government does too. It is currently sitting on a report that will detail how many people need mental health support. The message this sends is that it was convenient to not release it before the budget because of the expectation that the Government would have to do something.

The consequence is that people with severe mental illness will continue to churn through emergency departments and acute wards, as well as other health, welfare and community services. This creates more cost for the Government when they should be looking at investments that will cut back demand growth in our health system.

If the Government invested in community based mental health supports they would not only save money, but help the thousands and thousands of people living with mental illness get the support they need and reduce their need for other health services.

It’s a missed opportunity to reduce what is the biggest gap in state mental health services.

Community support saves lives, makes lives better and makes the rest of the mental health system more effective.’

Other headlines of note for from the State Budget:

  • Financial Year 2024 is aiming for a small surplus overall with Financial Year 2023 projected to finish with a small deficit
  • With Housing, 1140 more public housing properties; 700 new affordable homes; 25000 new blocks north and south; stamp duty relief and grants for first home owners
  • $2.3b additional in health over the forward estimates – including $1.3b to meet ‘activity demand pressures’ and $567m to transition from ‘pandemic’ to ‘living with COVID’; $22.3 for the 24 bed Regency Green NDIS transition service
  • $471m cost of living relief of which $254.4m will be for energy bill relief and $57.2 for indexation for NGO services.

The Budget announcements did not include detail around the Commonwealth – State National Partnership Agreement on mental health and suicide prevention which is being renegotiated.