Mental health report released after Tyrrell's questions
Senator Tammy Tyrrell, Jacqui Lambie Network Senator for Tasmania, welcomes the release of the 10-year National Mental Health Workforce Strategy today.
“It’s great to see that the Government has finally released the 10-year National Mental Health Workforce Strategy after my questions in the Senate in September, Only a few years after the task force's own deadline of the end of 2021 - you can’t accuse the Government of rushing things.
“Today’s update to the report webpage is its first since 2021.
“My only question is: where’s the rest of it? This is a ten year strategy, put together over two years, and it’s 60 pages. They’ve written 30 pages a year and they’ve given us 60 pages to guide the next decade.
“Tasmania’s mental health workforce is at critically low levels. Tasmanians can wait for up to eight months to see a psychologist. And when you need help, you can’t wait that long.
“As the report makes clear, we need to grow the mental health workforce by about 50 per cent simply to meet 2019’s level of demand. Basically, for every three workers we need, we only have two. We’ve got a John Butler Trio without John Butler.
“The report is a strategy, not a policy. But it’s a starting point, and at least it spells out the scale of the problem. We have a diagnosis. The hard work of curing it starts now.”
10 October 2023
