The Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA) has welcomed the ‘much-needed’ attention to mental health in the 2011-12 Federal Budget, but has called for a comprehensive oral health program to address the nation's declining dental health standards.

 

“Mental health has finally received some coordinated action from the Commowealth to show leadership in an area that has traditionally suffered. The AHHA believes the whole-of-government approach being taken by the Gillard Government is a very positive step forward and a model for a range of other health and wellbeing issues,“ AHHA Executive Director Ms Prue Power said after the Budget announcement.

However, the AHHA has strongly criticized the lack of funding in the Budget for dental care for low income earners, pensioners, Indigenous Australians and those living in remote areas.

 

The AHHA welcomed the 50 placements for the Federal dental internship program, but said “this will do little to help those most in need who are languishing on waiting lists."

 

"Over the next year the AHHA urges the Government to allocate significant funding to implement a comprehensive oral health program that will go a long way towards reversing the serious impact that our dental health crisis is having on national productivity and overall well-being,” said Ms Power.