Mental Health In Australia

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Do you know that one of five Australians are experiencing mental disorder in some extent? Depression, which is a mental disorder, has become one of the top three diseases of burden in Australia that could definitely somehow leads to non-fatal diseases such as heart diseases (Savy & Sawyer, 2009, p.272). Stigmatization and discrimination of mentally ill has become seemingly common in the Australian society due to the perception of people towards the mentally ill, which in some cases can become unpredictable and even violent. An extremely low rate of interactions between the general community and the mentally ill has been indicated in the last few decades. This is although global authorities and Australian government, both federal and state,…show more content…
Community care has been developed over health care services rather than institutional care from the government (Henderson & Fuller, 2011, p.184). “Greater awareness has been fostered, especially by beyondblue and SANE, revealing substantial unmet need, and a shameful gap
in access and quality of care between physical and mental healthcare” stated by Prof. Patrick McGorry AO (Singerman, 2013, p.16). There has been First, Second, Third and Forth National Mental Health Plans established since 1992 till recent, in which each plans emphasizes on each areas of mental health care services. For example, the aim of the first plan is to improve the rights of consumers in mental health services, their family members and carers with an emphasis. More GPs are provided through the program of Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care (BOMHC) with 15% increased of counseling time with GPs (Thomas, Jasper & Rawlin, 2006, p.153). Many investments have been initiated into the mental health care services or reforms throughout the last decade. To support this with evidence, the Australian Government supports BOMHC program with $120.4 million funds to maintain the program for 4 more years after it has been established (Thomas, Jasper & Rawlin, 2006, p.153). An exceeding amount of non-profit organizations and mental health services have been established in the last decade with low integration between community care and the professionals in

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