The Federal Government has announced it will provide the NSW Government with $57.6 million over five years for three new projects to improve the care and support provided to those living with severe mental illnesses.

 

Under the new National Partnership Agreement (NP), NSW will receive the largest funding boost of all states and territories.

 

Outlined in the funding package, the spending will support the following:

 

  • $35.2 million for the expansion of the existing NSW Housing and Accommodation Support Initiative (HASI) to enable more people to live in the community in stable and secure accommodation, with links to clinical mental health and rehabilitation services for people who require 16 or 24 hour support.
  • $12.3 million for the provision of intensive, family focussed support to mothers with mental illness and their children to keep them together, through the provision of high, medium and low packages of care and short term housing.
  • $10.2 million for in-reach support services to boarding house residents who have been assessed as having mental health issues, through the provision of 200 continuous and ongoing new low support packages.

 

Requests for tenders for the initiatives for will be advertised on the NSW Government e-tendering website https://tenders.nsw.gov.au/health/ in May 2012. Interested parties may register on the site to receive e-mail notifications when new tenders are published.