Publications & Submissions
Policy publications
MHCC ACT Election Platform 2024
MHCC ACT Election Platform 2024. Developed through extensive consultation with our members, reflecting the valuable insights and feedback of our sector, ensuring our Election Platform meets their needs, and the needs of the Canberra community.
Towards an ACT Mental Health Outcomes Framework
Towards an ACT Mental Health Outcomes Framework: A Discussion Paper prepared by Dr Sebastian Rosenberg, Outcomes Development Specialist, Mental Health Community Coalition of the ACT.
At the moment, public inpatient and outpatient, public community services, private, non-government, primary health care-funded, early intervention and self-care services operate more as silos than as part of a designed system. A better, more organised and efficient response to mental illness needs more than just new services.
ACT community-managed mental health workforce profile 2023
ACT community-managed mental health workforce profile 2023 was prepared by Human Capital Alliance (International) Pty Ltd (HCA) for the Mental Health Community Coalition ACT to report on the findings from the ACT community-managed mental health workforce survey 2022.
Introducing outcome measurement for non-government mental health services in the ACT (December 2022)
This report provides the findings and recommendations of our 2022 scoping project to explore and identify the most relevant, evidence-based and appropriate tools for measuring service outcomes for mental health consumers and/or carers in the ACT.
When the NDIS came to the ACT (June 2018)
This publication looks at whether the introduction of the NDIS in the ACT has left people with mental health conditions and psychosocial disability better off.
Submissions
March 2024
Inquiry into Disability Inclusion Bill 2024 Submission
MHCC ACT believes that all Canberrans play a role in building a mentally healthy, safe, connected community. Those 80,000 Canberrans with disability will benefit from the framework presented in the Bill to ensure a social approach to inclusion. All Canberrans will further benefit from the contributions those with disability will be empowered to make through their improved inclusion.
This submission makes three recommendations to the Standing Committee on Education and Community Inclusion, detailed over this submission. The recommendations are as follows:
- Redefine ableism in the Bill to also encapsulate its intersections with historical and contemporary eugenics and systemic human rights violations.
- Explicitly extend inclusion rights and processes to people with disability without requiring diagnosis or disclosure wherever possible.
- Include universal design within the principles for disability inclusion in the ACT community.
March 2024
Inquiry into Loneliness and Social Isolation in the ACT Submission
Loneliness and social isolation are critical public health issues yet to be addressed by Australian governments. Loneliness and social isolation are implicated in physical, mental, and cognitive health conditions that heighten risk of premature death to a similar level as heavy smoking. Despite the overwhelming health risks associated with loneliness and the impact on public health expenditure arising, it has not been prioritised in government planning. Further, the general public is largely unaware of loneliness as a health issue. Individuals are not offered targeted loneliness support. The existing evidence suggests that loneliness is highly stigmatised, creating further barriers to building connection.
Not only is the problem largely unaddressed, but it is also very widespread. The loneliness epidemic coincides with heightened levels of disconnection, including here in the ACT. Over time, survey data shows that we are less likely to be involved in our communities and that we report having fewer and fewer trusted friends.
Our submission posits that interventions to redress the causes of this disconnection – such as individual psychological factors, multiple forms of marginalisation, and trends in industrial relations, urban planning and technology use – provide ways forward for stemming the loneliness crisis.
The actions described here require new data collection, so we can more effectively monitor the impact of desired changes and assess the extent to which our community enjoys enhanced feelings of belonging, connectedness, solidarity, and companionship
January 2024
Inquiry into climate change and a just transition Submission
Since the Industrial Revolution, our planet has warmed by 1.5 degrees Celsius, constituting the largest threat to global health of the modern era. The stark impacts of this overall trend are and will be unevenly felt on a global scale, including here in the ACT. We see that existing climate change strategies leave behind our most vulnerable people, compounding cost-of-living stress and abandoning the principles of community wellbeing and inclusion. Efforts to address climate change must consider equity in both mitigation (reducing emissions) and adaptation (coping with the impacts).
In this submission, MHCC ACT shows why a just climate change response should centre mental health.
January 2024
2024-25 ACT Pre-budget Submission
Our pre-budget submission to the ACT government emphasises the importance of increased funding to the community-managed mental health sector to address the growing mental health needs in our community. We show how additional funding for prevention, early intervention, hospital alternatives, rehabilitation, and recovery would amount to a cost saving, and opportunities for flourishing.
We advocate for a humanistic approach to the ACT’s mental health system – allowing for a greater peer workforce and training for providers to support people as they are, and when they need it.
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