Victorian Mental Health: Strategies, Achievements and Benefits

This paper discusses the Victorian mental health strategies, policy, and plans, achievements, and benefits as well as the extent to which these strategies have improved the level of service delivery to the people of Victoria. The strategies by the government aimed at promoting good mental health to the Victorians as well as supporting the families adversely affected by the poor social and emotional well-being.

Running head: VICTORIAN MENTAL HEALTH 1
Victorian Mental Health
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Victorian Mental Health

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The state department of Victoria is focused on improving the Victorian healthcare system
by positively changing the operations and the way of doing things in the health sector. Currently,
mental health problems and associated disorders are on the rise worldwide. World health
organization WHO (2011), predictions showed that depression alone will constitute the second
major cause of such diseases in the world by the year 2020. For this reason, the Australian
government is keen on addressing the factors causing the diseases in order to improve the human
health and the general well-being. Of all the diseases and disorders, mental illnesses are not only
common in most parts of the world but also, their social, human and economic consequences are
devastating. This is particularly due to its association with alcohol and other drugs use whose
consumptions is on the rise globally (Drake, O'Neal and Wallach 2016). As such, the
government is committed to addressing both the mental health as well as alcohol and other drugs
use or abuse. Several programs are on the run with the aim of devising systems that will respond
to people’s needs, improve the quality of service delivery by medical practitioners, expand the
capacity of the available workforce as well as improving on transparency and accountability
when handling sensitive health-related tasks. This paper focuses on the Victorian mental health
strategies, policy, and plans, achievements, and benefits as well as the extent to which these
strategies have improved the level of service delivery to the people of Victoria.
The strategies by the government aimed at promoting good mental health to the
Victorians as well as supporting the families adversely affected by the poor social and emotional
well-being. Fighting mental illnesses starts by preventing their spread or by elevating their
causes. The mental health strategy deploys specialist who is well conversant with both treatment
and prevention. Prevention focuses on the youth who are the most vulnerable to alcohol and
other drugs abuse. Despite the fact that different groups are more likely to suffer from mental

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illnesses subject to their vulnerability, unfavorable environments, social and economic
conditions, the program aims at creating and maintaining a high level of accessibility to mental
services to all Victorians. However, more intensive actions are directed towards the socially and
economically disadvantaged groups (Manning et al., 2015).
The mental health strategy is of fundamental importance to the people of Victoria. First,
every citizen requires a good mental health to thrive and secondly, mental health sickness can
affect anyone regardless of the age or economic background. Indeed not all mental cases are as a
result of substance abuse but instead could be biological. For that reason, victims have the right
to access to specialized services and treatments. With regards to mental health, we all have
varying levels of need and at times, the conditions range from short-term reactions for example
relationships conflicts, grieve due to loss of loved ones and work-related stress to other complex
situations. With time and the necessary support, such mental conditions are bound to fade away
(Manning, Smith and Mazerolle 2013). Such a treatment strategy among other initiatives by the
government, for example, universal education, healthy families, and liveable cities all acts as the
building blocks to better mental health to the residents of Victoria and Australia at large.
As the guiding principles, the government developed a 10-year plan in 2015 with the aim
of reforming the past for a better future as well as guiding investments for an efficient mental
health care to the country’s residents. Despite the dynamic world, we are in today, the strategy is
set on systematic and consistent approach and this has greatly helped the design, the
implementation and the development of service delivery. The strategy is consumer-oriented,
involves carers and family members, is anchored on medical, biological, social and psychosocial
factors affecting mental health and well-being, and is oriented towards personal recovery. Above
all, it is evidence-based. Evidence-based practice is a process that integrates the best available

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evidence gathered through scientific research to guide medical practitioners. It brings together
clinical expertise, patient values and external clinical evidence obtained from systemic research
in the making of the decision about a patient’s treatment or care (McGorry, Bates and Birchwood
2013). Through this approach patient care has improved with more consistent positive outcomes
because the current best evidence is used in deciding the treatment plan of an individual patient.
The outcomes of this program are that most people suffering from mental disorders have
benefited from it positively. Though the change is gradual, a difference can be noted. The
traditional systems are being oriented into completely new and different ways of working.
Policies have changed with an annual report being produced and tabled to the parliament each
year for evaluation purposes. The performance and progress of the strategy are being monitored
from a close glance (Goodyear et al., 2015).
The key achievement and the benefits of the program includes availability of genuine
choices about decisions affecting the mentally ill, accessibility to good mental health care to
Victorians from childhood and throughout their lives, suicide is on the decline, health gap
witnessed by the indigenous people is becoming nonexistent, there is greater and enhance
participation from all spheres of life by the disadvantaged groups and reduction in health
inequalities. Additionally, people suffering from trauma have been identified and can now easily
access specialized care and treatment when they need it. However, more is yet to be done and
within the ten years under which the programs are designed to be implemented much more will
be achieved as well as streamlining any other outlier system (Bee, Brooks, Fraser, Lovell 2015).
By providing genuine choices to the victims of mental diseases, the strategy has greatly
assisted in recovery as well as promoting human rights by allowing people to make a selection
from the available list of options. This way, people are likely to rethink about their lives and to

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choose meaningful options as far as their future is concerned. The choices are however limited
by the available services. Indeed not all conditions will present options but regardless of the
situation, the strategy has empowered individuals to make decisions within their constraints.
Most importantly, provision of such information to people as well as dedicated support is very
crucial in one’s life (National Mental Health Commission 2014).
The most important benefit is that of supporting children and disadvantaged families.
This serves as the foundation for a lifelong medical healthcare to the residents and their future
generations. It is absolutely crucial that the government creates a safe environment for its
residents so as to facilitate community development as well as economic growth.
The aboriginals in Australian have for a long time suffered; they appear to be discriminated and
neglected of their healthcare rights. However, with this strategy, the wide gap has now been
reduced with the aboriginals receiving medication like any other citizens. This has by far fought
discrimination and racism in the country. As far as suicide deaths are concerned, mental health
problems have in the past reported a significant contribution to the overall number of suicide
cases experienced in Australia as well as the world in general. However, with the implementation
of the mental health strategies, the rates of suicide deaths have significantly been reduced,
meaning that the strategy is saving on more lives either directly or indirectly (Stolk, Minas and
Klimidis 2014).
Despite the great and magnificent achievement by the government and the mental health
strategy, a lot remains unachieved at the moment and more is to be done. The general well-being
of the citizens is a function of the environment they live in. As far as mental health is concerned,
a lot of factors contribute to its development and to curb such illnesses and disorders, the
environmental factors should be taken under control (Treloar and Holt 2008). This will not only

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add to the achievement list but will reduce the government’s expenditure on treatment and
prevention. Among the things to focus on, and which are the major causes of mental illnesses
include prenatal exposure to alcohol and other drugs, discrimination, family violence and child
abuse by parents, temperament, genetics, bullying in schools, self-esteem, developmental and
other environmental factors. Some of the factors mentions can simply be controlled by laying
down simple policies while others are complicated to handle. Growth and development are
gradual and with time, application of the necessary measures as well as ensuring stringent
adherence will bring about their control (Cummins et al., 2014).
As mentioned above, the best strategy to effectively and efficiently reduce mental related
issues in the community is by intervening at the very early age. Studies also suggest that mental
health in children and families be addressed through a combination of complementary systems or
models. Such models include intensive outreach services to all the residents and particularly the
vulnerable ones, age oriented patient and inpatient service days, and development of crisis
intervention teams to respond to family violence and childhood abuse. Integration of such
programs with patient treatment will help a great way in reducing the time needed to address
mental health issues in the country (Le Boutillier et al., 2015)

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