Fed: More mental health funds needed: Hickie

AAP General News (Australia)
04-19-2010
Fed: More mental health funds needed: Hickie

CANBERRA, April 19 AAP - Mental health beds in the latest $1.2 billion federal government
offer aimed at getting its health reforms through are a start but another $250 million
is needed, an advocate says.

State and territory leaders at Monday's Council of Australian Governments meeting in
Canberra have been offered an $827 million sweetener aimed at delivering 800 new sub-acute
beds.

Some of the beds would be in mental health services.

Professor Ian Hickie, executive director of the University of Sydney's Brain and Mind
Research Institute, said the move would stop mental health patients taking up valuable
public hospital beds.

The announcement would get patients out of $1000-a-day beds and into $400-a-day beds
- but another $250 million a year was needed for mental health services in the community,
he said.

"Sub-acute services is great, but we really do expect the prime minister to step up
to the plate now and back mental health," Prof Hickie told Sky News.

"Mental health is the biggest area of health-related disability in this country."

Prof Hickie said he also needed to see the details of the latest announcement to determine
whether the money was a capital injection only, and not ongoing funding.

AAP gd/kms/goc/

KEYWORD: HOSPITALS HICKIE

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