Tasmania’s primary health network welcomes the opportunity to help lead a more coordinated and tailored approach to the delivery of community-based mental health services across the state.
Primary Health Tasmania CEO Phil Edmondson has responded to the Australian Government’s announcement today that the country’s 31 primary health networks (PHNs) will be charged with planning and commissioning a range of mental health services based on local needs.
“Let me be clear that this won’t be about Primary Health Tasmania telling mental health service providers what the needs are and how they are to be addressed,” he said.
“It will be about working as a sector to pool knowledge, agree on what we want to achieve, co-design solutions and share the responsibility for outcomes – which needs to amount to better mental health for Tasmanians.
“There’s a level of flexibility with this funding which means we can partner with local communities and providers to come up with solutions that work in Devonport or Cygnet or Swansea, irrespective of whether they’d work in Canberra or Melbourne.
“And that local knowledge and expertise will be key to working out what results we want, the best way to achieve them, whether we’re actually getting the results we planned, and what we could do better moving forward.”
Primary Health Tasmania’s first step will be to start discussions with the sector, including peak body the Mental Health Council of Tasmania, service providers and consumers.
“I’ve already spoken to Mental Health Council of Tasmania CEO Connie Digolis about working together to ensure this opportunity delivers the best possible results,” Mr Edmondson said.
Today’s announcement constitutes the Australian Government’s response to the National Mental Health Commission’s review of mental health programs and services. Details are online at http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-review-response
Commonwealth-funded community-based mental health services are currently provided by a range of organisations around the state under contracts which, in many cases, expire on 30 June 2016.
The Government has decided that over a three-year phasing-in period, PHNs will move to eventually commission all regionally delivered Commonwealth mental health programs.
Primary Health Tasmania is awaiting further detail about exactly what funding it will receive for which purposes and at what time.
The State Government also provides a range of hospital and community-based services, and Primary Health Tasmania will not replicate these services.
“The State Government has a 10-year plan for mental health – Rethink Mental Health Tasmania – which also aims for an integrated system delivering support in the right place at the right time,” Mr Edmondson said.
“We will continue to work with the State Government to ensure our work links in with that plan and supplements services already available through state-funded programs.
“Importantly, as well as being commissioning entities, the PHNs have a role in linking different parts of the mental health system – including public and private, community-based and hospital – to promote more seamless care for individuals.”
He said while there is clearly a lot of change ahead, a priority will be ensuring service continuity and access for clients.
“Any changes to services will be planned in a way that ensures there is no loss of capability or continuity; rather we will aim to improve capacity to deliver high quality mental health services,” Mr Edmondson said.
Primary Health Tasmania is a non-government, not-for-profit organisation working to connect care and keep Tasmanians well and out of hospital. It was established on 1 July 2015 under the Australian Government’s Primary Health Networks Program to support and enable a coordinated, primary care-focused health system.
Jenny Denholm Communications Manager
