Psychiatrists are calling forinvestment in Australia's declining psychiatry workforce.(ABC News: Luke Bowden)
In the wake of the Bondi Junction stabbing attack, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has conceded that government could always do more to address Australia's mental health crisis.
And that is exactly what more than 500 members of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists(RANZCP) called forlast month in an open letter to federal Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler.
The letter outlined issues facing psychiatrists due to workforce shortages, such as increased risk of burnout and decreased quality of care for patients.
The RANZCP also put forward a pre-budget submission outlining measures it hoped the government would invest in to help alleviate these pressures.
RANZCP president Elizabeth Moore said long wait times for patients seeking critical mental health care were dangerous in more ways than one.
The problem with people having to wait to get treatment is that their problems get more complex, and then it puts further strain on an already overburdened system, Dr Moore said.
We wanted to retain people in the system, we wanted to train more people for the system, and we actually wanted to attract more people.
Workforce shortages
Every year, one in five Australians experiences a mental health condition and almost half of all Australians will experience mental ill health in their lifetime.
But for many people, especially in regional and rural areas, accessing critical mental health can be difficult due in part to workforce shortages.
Grampians Mental Health and Wellbeing Services clinical director Anoop Lalitha said in public mental health services it's always a challenge to recruit psychiatrists.
And when it comes to regional and rural centres, it's even more difficult to recruit and retain psychiatrists, he said.
A nationwide survey of 1,269 psychiatrists recently revealed that over 90 per cent of psychiatrists believed workforce shortages were risking patient care.
If early interventions are not provided to the consumers because they are not able to access the appropriate services like the psychiatrists or the case managers or the clinicians or the psychologists, there is always a risk of further deterioration, Dr Lalitha said.
Accessing mental health care can be particularly hard in regional and rural areas.(Pexels:Alex Green)
Psychiatrists themselves are also struggling with the consequences of these workforce shortages.
When psychiatrists are thinly spread across the service, [it causes] significant risk in providing quality service to the clients, Dr Lalitha said.
Not only that, but there is also a significant risk of burnout for the psychiatrist as well.
Dr Moore said workforce shortages were not new but the rate of people presenting with mental health conditions was only going to increase.
For a workforce who cares deeply about helping people, it is incredibly demoralising to feel like you can't do the best for your patients, she said.
With more people needing mental health care than ever, the system is unable to cope, and our most vulnerable people are falling through the cracks.
Investment in mental health care
In its submission ahead of the May federal budget,the RANZCP recommended thegovernmentfund specialist training programs to create more placements in private hospitals and ease pressure on consultant psychiatrists.
We've got a couple of very good programs that actually get people interested in psychiatry, Dr Moore said.
We wanted the Commonwealth government to actually boost those programs.
We need targeted government funding to attract, train and retain more psychiatrists and mental health workers and distribute them evenly in the country.
She said improved access to mental health services for patients when they needed it would cost the health system less.
But also, that person's life and the person's family's life is much better — it's a much better trajectory, Dr Moore said.
Dr Elizabeth Moore is the president of RANZCP.(Supplied: RANZCP)
Our call to Minister Butler and the federal government is clear — help us help you in providing accessible, affordable and the best possible mental health care to every Australian, regardless of their background or postcode.
The federal budget will be handed down on May 14.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-18/psychiatrists-ask-government-for-more-support-workforce-shortage/103733902
