MHCN’s Key Policy and Advocacy Areas

The best help a mental health carer can have, is a safe, accessible and effective system of support for their loved one, which is why MHCN also engages in advocacy on mental health reform.

The following are a select few of the key areas that we have identified through our consultations with carers and advocated for in our submissions.

Many mental health carers feel overwhelmed and stressed because the mental health system is hard to understand and use

  • In NSW, mental health services are not well connected, making it hard for people with mental health issues and their carers to get the right help when they need it.
  • MHCN wants changes to make the system easier to understand, so carers don’t have to fill in the gaps. We’ve advocated for more funding for the Family and Carer Mental Health Program, especially to support peer workers from diverse communities who can help with advocacy and finding services.
  • MHCN also supports funding for education programs to help carers understand the mental health system and learn about their rights and responsibilities under the NSW Mental Health Act 2007.

Provide more funding for early support, recovery services, and people who don’t get enough help (“the missing middle”)

  • Most funding for mental health still goes to crisis care, not early help. Early support services don’t get enough funding and often don’t reach the people who need them most, like those in rural areas, low-income communities, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups.
  • Free and easy-to-access early support services, like headspace, help stop mental health problems from getting worse. These services work well for people at risk but currently get only a small share of funding.
  • One reason there aren’t enough early services is because the NDIS relies on a market system. This creates gaps, especially where there aren’t enough providers. These gaps are biggest in areas like the justice system, and for people with intellectual disabilities or cognitive issues, where it’s hard to get the right support.

Fund Carer Peer Workers

  • Carer Peer Workers offer specialised support and advocacy to mental health carers, based on their own lived experience of caring.
  • Right now, in NSW, there aren’t enough Carer Peer Workers, and access to them depends on where you live or which service you use.
  • MHCN recommends expanding the community-based organisations under the Family and Carer Mental Health Program to employ additional Carer Peer Workers, so that all areas of NSW have equal access to this support.

 

Provide tailored mental health and emotional support for carers

  • Mental health carers may experience distress, which puts them at higher risk of emotional and mental health problems.
  • Carers of people in the justice system (forensic and corrections patients) are especially at risk of trauma and poor mental health because they don’t get the right kind of support.
  • Right now, carer needs are often left out when planning mental health support services.
  • MHCN advocates for carers to have access to emotional and mental health support that meets their specific needs, as part of a complete mental health system.
    • Services need better understanding of the challenges and stigma faced by carers of people in the justice system.

Provide respite for carers

  • In its report to the Government, the 2024 Inquiry into Equity, accessibility and appropriate delivery of outpatient and community mental health care in New South Wales by Portfolio Committee No. 2 – Health, NSW Legislative Council found that ‘The fragmentation of mental health services in NSW leads to extraordinary difficulties for mentally ill people and their carers to navigate and access appropriate services and care. This difficulty often exacerbates mental distress, and contributes to inefficient use of limited resources.’ Finding 2
  • The Committee made the following recommendation ‘That NSW Government ensure funding for carer education, supports and resources, including respite services.’ (Recommendation 3).
  • MHCN believes that funding support for carers – including respite services – will help reduce loneliness and isolation.
  • MHCN currently runs a respite program that supports mental health carers and their families in NSW with an opportunity to take a break from their caring role, however more and other types of respite is needed including:
    • In-home respite services additional to current existing programs, which are limited.
    • Residential respite in each Local Health District across NSW.
    • Flexible options such as carer respite cards to subsidise  access to wellbeing, sporting and entertainment venues, which mental health carers can use on their own.

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