The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System was established because there is widespread acknowledgment that mental health services have reached crisis point. Many people living with mental illness are not receiving the treatment, care and support when and where it would offer the greatest benefit.

The Commission’s interim report includes priority recommendations that address immediate needs and lay foundations for a new approach to mental health. This is an important first step.

The Commission’s recommendations in its final report, due in October 2020, will present a bold and innovative approach to transform Victoria’s mental health system.

Interim recommendations:

• A new approach to mental health investment (a tax or levy), to ensure a substantial increase in funding for mental health – not just now but into the future.
• The creation of a Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing to bring together different skills and expertise to drive better mental health outcomes for all Victorians.
• An additional 170 youth and adult acute mental health beds to help address critical pressures in areas of need.
• Expansion of the Hospital Outreach Post-suicidal Engagement (HOPE) program into all area mental health services and linked to sub-regional health services as well as a new assertive outreach and follow up care service for children and young people, to increase the availability of support and outreach for Victorians at risk of suicide.
• The creation of an Aboriginal Social and Emotional Wellbeing Centre and expansion of Aboriginal social and emotional wellbeing teams across the state.
• Establishing Victoria’s first residential mental health service, as an alternative to an acute admission, designed and delivered by people with lived experience of mental illness.
• Expanding and supporting consumer and family-carer lived experience workforces.
• Addressing workforce shortages and preparing for reform including through the provision of more training and recruitment pathways to boost the number of graduate nurses and allied health professionals in public mental health services.
• Establishing a Mental Health Implementation Office to start work delivering these recommendations.

The Victorian government has committed to implementing all the recommendations made by the Royal Commission.

The Commission has recommended that a Mental Health Implementation Office be established to start delivering the recommendations.