The Mental Health Coalition of South Australia has written to the major parties ahead of the 2026 State Election, calling for a commitment to fund the unmet psychosocial support needs of 19,000 South Australians living with severe mental illness. Letters have been sent to SA Labor, the Liberal Party and Greens.
Our election ask is clear: invest $125 million annually in community-based psychosocial services to address the critical gap identified in the government’s own research.
The 2023 Unmet Needs for Psychosocial Support Services report from the Office of Chief Psychiatrist revealed a reality we already knew. Of the 26,810 individuals with severe mental illness who required psychosocial support in 2021/2022, over 19,000 were left without psychosocial supports. This means our mental health system cannot effectively support 75% of the people who need it.
“This is not a new problem,” said MHCSA Executive Director Geoff Harris. “Since the NDIS rollout, we lost a quarter of state-funded NGO mental health services. While there has been investment in crisis services and hospital beds since then, the psychosocial supports that help people stay well and avoid crisis have been neglected.”
The consequences of this funding gap are severe. Without adequate community support, individuals face increased hospitalisations, ramping, and reliance on crisis services—outcomes that are worse for South Australians and more expensive for the health system.
Multiple reports support our call to action. The National Unmet Needs report confirmed the growing gap in psychosocial supports. The Productivity Commission’s recent review of the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement stated that “state and territory governments should immediately prioritise addressing the gap in psychosocial supports” affecting 500,000 Australians.
The solution is evidence-based: invest in community-based NGO services that provide proactive outreach through Peer and Mental Health Workers using recovery principles. These services reach vulnerable populations where they are, providing information, direct support, and connections to appropriate care.
MHCSA has developed a practical funding proposal, beginning with a pilot in the City of Salisbury, which we have presented to the government as a first step toward addressing this critical need.
“We have the evidence. We have the solution. What we need now is political commitment,” Harris said. “Nineteen thousand South Australians and their families are waiting for the support they need to live well in the community.”
