[Greens-Media] Mental Health Week: Rural mental health workers give Abbott fail grade

[Forsyth, Danielle (Sen P. Wright)]

Senator Penny Wright
MEDIA RELEASE
8 October 2014
Rural mental health workers give Abbott fail grade: survey
Rural mental health workers have comprehensively condemned the Abbott Government's performance in the sector in a survey released by Australian Greens spokesperson for mental health Senator Penny Wright.
The survey reveals widespread dissatisfaction with underfunding of mental health services in rural and regional areas.
Only six per cent of the 143 rural mental health workers surveyed said mental health services in their region were adequate to meet the need, while 98 per cent wanted government funding for rural and regional mental health increased.
Asked to rank the Abbott Government's performance on rural mental health to date, almost half gave the government the lowest possible score, with 80 per cent giving the Government an unfavourable rating.
Senator Wright, who visited rural and regional areas in every state and territory as part of a mental health consultation<http://greensmps.org.au/ruralmh-report> in 2012 and 2013, said rural mental health services had been severely underfunded for too long.
"This survey is a rally cry from the bush to the Abbott Government. It's time to wake up and fix rural mental health," Senator Wright said.
"With the rate of suicide so much higher in rural areas, action on mental health is quite literally a matter of life and death."
The survey also found:

*         89% want the Abbott Government to appoint a dedicated Mental Health minister;

*         Only 8% believed mental health was a priority for their local Member of Parliament; and

*         More than 4 in 5 rural mental health workers thought more needed to be done on suicide prevention, with LGBTI people identified as the least likely to be able to access quality care locally.
"The current rural mental health workforce is under-staffed, under-resourced and under-trained, leaving Australians who live in rural and regional areas without life-saving services and care," Senator Wright said.
"Mental Health Week is the week we need to begin to turn this around."
Media contact: Danielle Forsyth - 0417 173 508