Victoria will receive an additional $37 million in funding over four years to deliver new initiatives under the Commonwealth-State National Partnership Agreement Supporting Mental Health Reform.

The funding will cover initiatives which address key areas, such as reducing hospital emergency admissions, reducing homelessness and helping people with a mental illness into secure housing.

The initiatives come under the COAG commitment to improve responses from the health and housing services systems to the needs of people with mental illnesses.

Federal Minister for Mental Health, Mark Butler, said that the funding will be used to address ‘service gaps’ and prevent repeated admissions.

“For example, many people with mental illness find themselves in hospitals where a community based service would have been more appropriate to their needs,” Mr Butler said.

“We also know people with mental illness have a significantly higher rate of homelessness and that is a problem nation-wide which we are addressing here in Victoria and across the country.”

The initiatives funded through the National Partnership Agreement Supporting Mental Health Reform are:

  • The Mental Health Hospital Admission Risk Program (MH-HARP) – a $7.8 million trial of a new approach in three metropolitan sites that will target people with a mental health condition who frequently present to emergency departments. It will facilitate access to community support and provide better management of patient mental and physical health, which will reduce emergency department presentations. Approximately 700 people will be assisted across the three metropolitan sites.
  • Breaking the cycle: reducing homelessness – a $12.1 million program that will provide mental health outreach support and care co-ordination for people experiencing entrenched homelessness as a result of their mental illness and other conditions. The program, which complements the Victorian Government’s $76.7 million Victorian Homelessness Action Plan, will assist around 260 people over the life of the project.
  • Mental Health support for secure tenancies – a $10.1 million outreach support program targeted to people with severe mental illness who are, or are at risk of being, homeless and who need active support to access and maintain stable housing. Approximately 500 people aged from 16 to 64 will be assisted through this program across five sites in metropolitan Melbourne and large regional centres.
  • Capital for Psychiatric Assessment and Planning Units - $6 million in capital funding for Victoria to build three, four-bed Psychiatric Assessment and Planning Units that will provide up to 72 hours of specialist assessment, monitoring and treatment for acute episodes of mental illness. 

More information in individual projects can be found here