Meet people where they’re at – candidates called to support community-managed mental health services this election

MHCC’s President, Dr Yvonne Luxford said, “Canberra’s population is growing and so are the mental health needs of our community. This election, we want to see a focus on community-managed mental health services.

Our member’s services help people with mental health conditions to live well in our community, outside of acute hospital settings and outside of prohibitively expensive private services.”

The platform has four pillars, focusing on addressing the loneliness epidemic, integrated perinatal mental health care, supporting people with mental ill-health in carceral environments, and including mental health in all ACT Government climate change related strategies.

“Each of the measures in our platform provide early intervention and reduce the burden on our hospital system.

For example, a person reaching out to Safe Haven should be able to do so at any time – their service is great for meeting people where and when they need. We have called for the service to be funded to be open 7 days a week.”

In the platform, MHCC echo their pre-Budget calls for the ACT Government to allocate 20% of the mental health budget to services provided by community-managed organisations.

Currently, MHCC members make up two-thirds of Canberra’s mental health system and receive only 10% of the mental health budget.  

“Our services can help Canberrans with mental illness stay well in the community and avoid unnecessary hospitalisation.  We look forward to continuing to work closely with the ACT Government to make this happen. Our team are available to speak with candidates and parties about these issues.”

A copy of MHCC ACT’s election platform can be found on our website.

Media contacts:

Emma Davis, 02 5104 7713 | communications@mhccact.org.au