Implications of the Federal Government's New Mental Health Plan for eMH
Federal Government’s new plan for mental health care in Australia expects much greater and more rational use of online mental health resources and treatment programs in the future.
The fine print on the plan is too small to read just yet and there are a lot of questions about how the plan is going to be implemented, but some things seem clear:
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The focus will be on prevention, early intervention and community-based care
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Access to care will be linked to patients having mental health treatment plans and electronic health records
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Primary Health Networks will be in charge of the purse strings
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There is no additional money. The funds in the primary health network pool will come straight from the planned reduction in acute inpatient services
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Under the stepped care model appropriate patients will be expected to make use of low cost, low intensity resources including and especially eMH
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GPs and other mental health service providers will need to know about eMH and. be able to make an assessment of the appropriateness of eMH programs for their patients
I am conflicted about this. I have no doubt in my mind that eMH programs are an excellent resource and used well they can improve the mental health and wellbeing of many patients. On the other hand I know that they don’t suit everyone and my hope is that there will not be an imposition of eMH on those who don’t want to use it.
We will have to wait a little while to see what happens. In the meantime we all probably need to do some upskilling in how to use online resources.
Gerhard is a full professor of Clinical Psychology at Linköping University, Sweden since 2003, an
d affiliated researcher at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. Professor Andersson is an internationally recognized researcher in the field of CBT delivered through information and communication technology, as well as the author of the book “The Internet and CBT: a clinical guide”.
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