SWTP 632 - Policy Proposal: Enhancing Mental Health Support Under NDIS

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the mental health policy issues within the context of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in Australia. It highlights the underfunding of mental health services compared to physical health, the prevalence of mental health conditions, and the challenges in implementing effective policies. The report outlines the background of the current situation, including the lack of an overarching mental health architecture and the growing gap in healthcare outcomes. It identifies key issues such as discrepancies in policy distribution, barriers to implementation, and the need for better coordination and resourcing. The report proposes policy changes to improve mental health care, including coordinated care, integration with primary care, a skilled workforce, and increased access to services for rural communities. Expected outcomes include improved patient care, reduced health gaps, and a more effective mental health workforce. The report concludes with recommendations for the successful implementation of the mental health policy under the NDIS. Access similar documents on Desklib.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
SOCIOLOGY
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

SOCIOLOGY 1
Introduction
The government of Australia introduced and developed the National Disability Insurance
scheme (NDIS) with the provision of the funding for the people with disability. According to
Nous (2018) the NDIS includes the people who have been suffering from accidental and inborn
disability together with the psychosocial disability scheme. This has furthermore enable them
towards the purchase of the necessary and the reasonable supports. The Mental Health Australia
works collaboratively with the NDIS including the raising share of the policy, the issues related
to the implementation the building of the capacity and the sharing of the information. The report
highlights the policy issues in regards to the challenges of the health covered by NDIS. The
report is the explanation of the policy regarding the process of the review and the inquiry.
Throughout the report, the health issues that is the mental health has been highlighted within the
context of Australia (National Mental Health Commission, 2013). The report explains the
background of the current situation, the process, the issues that concerns the social work progress
for the implementation of the policy towards the targeted health issue. The report contains the
proposal of the policy with evidences for the proposal , the development and the process of the
implementation of the policy, how the policy fits with the programs of the government and the
process of the reporting and the evaluation process with the expected rate of the benefits.
Outline of the social issue
The context of the mental health and the care related to the psychiatrics has been grossly
underfunded when being compared to the physical health status. As per the current statistics in
Australia, the extent regarding the conditions of the mental health within the community is

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extensive with more than the majority of the adult Australians suffering from the mental health
conditions throughout their lifetime.
The National Disability Insurance Scheme is the scheme throughout the nation in
Australia that assists the people with disability with the inclusion of the psychological disability
and the mental disability. It has furthermore been found that people having mental disability
which significantly influences and impact their life are likely to be permanent and might qualify
for the NDIS support. Furthermore the National Disability Insurance Agency has been
implementing the scheme and has been responsible towards assessing eligibility with the
participants towards the effective development of the support for the meeting of their needs. The
scheme of NDIS helps in assisting people having mental illness who might be eligible towards
the access the NDIS. The mental health system fund of NDIS includes support towards the
related mental health that includes the clinical nature, the ambulatory, acute and the continuing
care within the community and the rehabilitation. The mental health scheme of the NDIS
furthermore includes early intervention supports and the residential care that includes both
programs for the development of the child and the adolescent needs.
The social distribution and the prevalence of mental health has been well documented
within the context of the Australia. While here has been a growing recognition of the problem in
the middle and high income areas of the country, there still lies some of the significant gap for
the measurement of the health challenges, the programs, the policies for the prevention of the
mental health issues. According to McGorry et al. (2011) mental illness are often termed as the
mental disorders. These are very much common within the population of Australia. The research
furthermore notified that one in every 5 Australians within the population of 4 million people has
been reported to suffer from the mental illness. Some of the most common categories and the

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types of the metal disorders suffered by the population in Australia are the anxiety, depression
and the substance use disorders. Within the different variety and the types of the mental illness,
there ranges a wide variety of the mild disorders lasting from few weeks to life time causing
some of the serious range of the disability. The context of the mental illness tends to affect the
people within the country through the behavior, mood and the way towards perceiving around
the world. According to the research study by Jorm (2014) the mental illness causes distress and
affects the ability of the person towards functioning at the work. In the context of Australia,
Mental illness furthermore attracts discrimination and stigma which forms as the two main
disorders for the person with mental illness.
As per the current structure, Australia has been lacking the overarching mental health
architecture. There has been so such agreed national design or any of the structure regarding the
facilitation of the prevention or the proper care for the people suffering from the mental illness.
Background of the current situation
A good mental health is one of the integral factor towards the wellbeing and the human
health. The mental health and the commonly denoted mental disorders are generally shaped by
numerous of the economic, social and the physical environments factors within the span of life.
Some of the overview of the mental health in Australia includes the following.
It has been noted that more than 45 percent that is 7.3 million of the Australians who are
among the age of 16 to 85 years has been experiencing the common mental health disorder like
the anxiety, depression and the context of substance abuse. More than 64,000 people in Australia
have psychotic illness and have been in contact with the public specialized services of the mental
health in each of the year. Furthermore more than 560,000 adolescents and children within the

4SOCIOLOGY
age group of 4 o 17 years experience’s mental health disorders. It has furthermore been denoted
by the Australian statistics that individual having schizophrenia tends to die 2 years earlier as
compared to the general population mainly due to the reason of the poor heath disease of heart
(McCausland et al., 2013). The current statistics regarding the background and the context of the
current issue of the mental health illness highlights the fact that more than one third of the
indigenous adults have high to very high level of psychological distress. The average rate of the
psychological stress among the Indigenous Australians are1.3 times higher as compared to the
normal or the general population.
Figure –1
Source – (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008)
The figure above highlights the current scenario of Australia. It illustrates the factors
enhancing the mental health hazard among the Australians. The figure describes the rate of the
mental health with the range of different ages.

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In the context of the above stated issue of the mental health, the government of Australia
agreed towards the development of the National Mental Health Plans and the policies related to
the mental health issues under the National Disability Insurance scheme (NDIS). Though the
policies has been implemented by the government for long still the gap among the health care
outcomes among the Australians and the other nations regarding the mental health disease
continued to grow up (Diminic et al., 2017). There has been report regarding the lack of practice
and the implementation of the health policy standards over the rural part of the country and also
for the communities belonging to the rural area.
Identified issues
There lies several of the provinces regarding the level of the resources related to the
mental health and the provision of the services for reflecting the wide gap among the practices
and the policy. According to American Psychiatric Association (2013) there lies some of the
major discrepancies regarding the distribution of the policy measures and the effects. The
conflicts regarding the movement of the policy towards the integration of the psychiatric services
towards the primary health care and the establishment of the mental health units within the
community based services, the general hospitals are in debate.
Apart from the identified issues regarding the health issues there lies some of the major
challenges regarding the many of the provinces within the country of Australia. This is because
the legislation has been driving the development of the services with the absence of the clear
national policy under the National Disability Insurance scheme (NDIS) together with the
inconsistent development of the provincial policies, the plans and the budget. Some of the major
issues while the implementation of the policy includes the barriers towards the implementation

6SOCIOLOGY
of the policy (Thill, 2015). These are the low level of the priority that is given to the mental
health at the national and the provincial levels, the limited bargaining power of the provincial
mental health organizers for the promotion and the prioritization of the mental health service
resourcing. Furthermore the limited capacity for the development of the policy in the mental
health sector of the Australia together with the limited provincial planning and the confusion
regarding the level of the authority of the guidelines of the policy at the national level is some of
the major identified challenges.
In order for the structures and the guidelines that has been set out in the policy for the mental
health in Australia under National Disability Insurance scheme (NDIS), there is the need for the
budgets and the provincial plans for the effective implementation of the mental health policy and
addressing of the issues related to the mental health in Australia.
Figure -2
Source – (Williams & Smith, 2014)
The figure above highlights the needs for both the legislation and the policy which is required for
the Australian framework for consideration of the mental health policy.

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The issue of the mental health is relevant to the practice of the social work since this epidemic
has been of the health challenges among a lot of Australians in the current decade. More than a
quarter number of the Australians as per the current statistics have been suffering from mental
disorders and mental health issues which has affected the entire social structures and the
economic development of the country. The high level of mortality rate among certain
communities of Australia is one of the issue that targets mental health as one of the social issue.
Expected outcomes
Some of the expected outcomes regarding the proposed policy changes regarding the
evaluation of the mental health issue are as follows.
 People will mental health illness will have defined and proper coordinated care for both
their physical and mental health (Salvador-Carulla & Einfeld, 2014)
 Linking and the integration of the mental health care will provide the patients within the
primary care with the priority regarding the mental health reform.
 The country will have the appropriate sized, resourced and skilled workforce that will be
successful in the delivery of the recovery focused, high quality mental health services
with a secure and a safe environment (Andrews, Henderson & Hall, 2001).
 The government will successfully implement the mental health policy by recruiting of the
mental health workforces for the provision of the access care for meeting the reasonable
needs

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 The rural community people will be getting proper access to the medical facilities and
there will be the successful reduction in the health gap among the community and the
urban population.
 There will furthermore be increased use if the mental health nurses with the general
practices which is crucial and can furthermore been achieved by the review of the
streamlining of the existing rage of the program for making the access easier.
 There will be improvement in the work of the health care providers regarding the mental
health care. This includes the rained and more knowledgeable psychiatrist, health nurses
and the mental health practitioners (Marston, Cowling & Bielefeld, 2016).
 The provision of the health support services and the appropriate security regarding the
available health practitioners in the area of the mental health.
Recommendation
In the terms of the implementation lies the biggest gap. It is essential for the health care
policy developers of the Australian government to highlight the targeted population , the
community and the age group of people who are the suffers of the mental health issue. It is
essential for the government of the country under the National Disability Insurance scheme
(NDIS) to revise the national policy of the mental health so that it can be implemented to all the
country and its people without any sort of discrimination. Some of the recommended factors for
the improvement of the implementation of the national mental health policy in Australia are as
follows (Australian Institute of Health, 2012). It includes the following:
 Finalizing and adaptation of new measures and standards for the mental health
policy,

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 Increased use of the national provincial communication channels for the effective
promotion and the dissemination of the mental health policy.
 Recommended factors for the policy improval including the development of the
provincial mental health plans that ensures the adequate rate of the financing for
the implementation of the policy and the legislation
 The increased rate of the collaboration with the sectors other than the health for
the improvement and the implementation of the efforts (Brophy et al., 2014).
 The increased level of the improvement of the family, consumer regarding the
lobby for the implementation at the district and the provincial levels.
 Finally it is essential for the government of the country to develop the mental
health information systems as per the guidelines of the WHO with some of the
nationally agreed indicators for the monitoring of the implementation of the
legislation and the policy.
Conclusion
Thus it can be deduced from the above report that NDIS includes the people who have
been suffering from accidental and inborn disability together with the psychosocial disability
scheme. The social distribution and the prevalence of mental health has been well documented
within the context of the Australia. While here has been a growing recognition of the problem in
the middle and high income areas of the country, there still lies some of the significant gap for
the measurement of the health challenges, the programs, the policies for the prevention of the
mental health issues. There has been report regarding the lack of practice and the implementation
of the health policy standards over the rural part of the country and also for the communities
belonging to the rural area. The report explains the proposal of the policy with evidences for the

10SOCIOLOGY
proposal , the development and the process of the implementation of the policy, how the policy
fits with the programs of the government and the process of the reporting and the evaluation
process with the expected rate of the benefits. It furthermore highlights some of the major
outcomes that can happen after the improvement and the revision of the current mental health
policy followed by the recommendation for the effective and the proper implementation of the
policy in Australia.

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Reference
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