Australian mental health reform: Time for real outcomes

Abstract

• After 12 years of national mental health reform, major service gaps and poor experiences of care are common. • The mental health community reports little progress in implementing its key priorities, such as expanded early-intervention programs, comanagement of people with mental health problems and related alcohol or substance misuse, and widening of the spectrum of acute care settings. • We propose new national targets for reducing the social and economic costs of poor mental health; these include increased access to effective care, reduced suicide rates and improved rates of return to full social and economic participation. • We detail specific service reforms designed to maximise the ch..