Living through the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in increased mental distress and ill-health among broad population groups globally. These challenges are likely to be enduring and have serious implications — not only for affected individuals and their families, but for all facets of society, the health sector, and the wider economy.

Australian governments at both federal and state level are cognisant of the magnitude of the problem and the necessity to include mental health in pandemic recovery planning. They have already committed significant funding and resources to managing this situation. However, there are critical operational gaps that must be addressed to ensure any strategy is comprehensive, long-term, and forward-thinking. (While there may be funding shortfalls, it is outside the scope of this paper to address the adequacy of current spending.)

This paper examines three high-value and critical gaps:

1. The decades-old problem of existing reform recommendations that have been repeatedly neglected by successive governments
2. The national shortage of mental health professionals (insufficient workforce capacity).
3. The generation born during the pandemic and undergoing their formative years who have experienced unprecedented impediments to normative bonding, development, and socialisation due to COVID-19 mitigation strategies such as face masks, lockdowns, and social distancing.

This paper offers the following recommendations to address these issues:

• Instigate a whole-of-government freeze on further mental health reviews, inquiries, and analyses until all recommendations from prior reviews are considered and either implemented or rejected with appropriate explanation.
• Expand the allied health services list allowed for Medicare Focussed Psychological Services rebates to include suitably qualified and registered counsellors, psychotherapists, and mental health nurses.
• Develop a national research model to study the long-term effects on children born during the pandemic to assess the scope of attachment insecurity, socialisation issues and emotional and neuro-developmental issues.

It is critical that policy-makers address these issues when considering mental health service reforms to:

• Alleviate further waste of time and resources;
• Ensure critical service provision gaps are filled; and
• Monitor and support a large cohort of children who may potentially experience crippling mental health and social problems, leading to a reduced quality of life.