Centralisation versus regionalisation : designing the Sixth National Mental Health Plan

S. Rosenberg, Kenny Lawson, I. Hickie

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In response to the recent Productivity Commission report into mental health, the previous Federal Government announced its intention to produce a new national agreement that lays the platform for Australia's sixth national mental health plan. It has been recommended mental health move to a more regional model of governance and planning, away from a centralised, top-down approach, partly in response to broader reforms affecting health care, and partly in direct response to consistent inquiry evidence that the mental health system remains in crisis. The past 30 years of mental health planning have been centralised. Successive national plans set a broad framework, with real decisions about mental health funding and service allocation made in the health departments of our capital cities. Will the next plan sponsor or inhibit regionality in mental health planning? This paper assesses Australia's historical approach to health planning particularly as it affected mental health and the costs arising. In learning these lessons, we propose the necessary ingredients to facilitate a regional, innovative, and effective approach to decentralised planning, for better mental health outcomes. We cannot afford to replicate the failed planning approaches of the past.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)290-301
Number of pages12
JournalAustralian Journal of Public Administration
Volume82
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2023

Open Access - Access Right Statement

This is an open access article under the terms of theCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialLicense (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Centralisation versus regionalisation : designing the Sixth National Mental Health Plan'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this