Call to deliver better mental health outcomes for First Nations people

Gayaa Dhuwi (Proud Spirit) Australia and Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA) are calling for urgent action to recognise and resource First Nations social and emotional wellbeing and mental health and suicide prevention as a core pillar of Australia’s mental health system.

In a joint paper, the two bodies have set out clear, actionable recommendations to governments to deliver culturally strong, community-led reform as a blueprint for transformational change.

The call comes after the release of the Productivity Commission’s National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement Final Report, which finds that the Agreement is “not fit for purpose” and failing to deliver systemic reform.

The Agreement has identified workforce as a key enabler and has urged governments to empower the national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce within this system, by implementing coordinated action, and reporting on workforce growth and distribution.

The paper’s recommendations are supported by two existing national workforce strategies, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workforce Strategic Framework and Implementation Plan 2021-2031 and the National Mental Health Workforce Strategy 2022-2032.

Professor Tom Calma, Patron of Gayaa Dhuwi and IAHA, said the Productivity Commission’s findings highlighted that the current Agreement was not delivering the reforms, workforce or services our communities need.

“This position paper provides a clear pathway forward, one that puts the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing, mental health, suicide prevention and post-vention workforce at the centre of transforming our mental health system in ways that are culturally strong and community-led,” he said.

Clear evidence

Rachel Fishlock, Chief Executive Officer of Gayaa Dhuwi, said the evidence was clear, the policies were in place, and the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement gave them the authorising environment.

“Now is the time to formally recognise, count, and sustainably fund our social and emotional wellbeing, mental health, and suicide prevention workforce as a core pillar of Australia’s mental health system, ensuring culturally led, community-based care is at the centre of reform,” Ms Fishlock said

Donna Murray, Chief Executive Officer of IAHA, said they needed conditions that enable safe, effective and culturally responsive practice, with cultural governance and knowledge systems embedded and valued alongside clinical governance and biomedical understandings of mental health.

“This includes shared understandings of workforce roles and funding models that empower the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce – who possess unique knowledges and experiences – to operate in a culturally centred way. These proposed reforms build on the strengths of our workforce and our communities, and we are ready to work in partnership to implement them without delay,” she said.

The position paper calls for:

• Formal recognition of the social and emotional wellbeing, mental health and suicide prevention workforce in national frameworks.
• Investment in workforce development across community, lived experience, and professional roles informed by the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workforce Strategic Framework and Implementation Plan 2021- 2031
• Accurate and timely collection and reporting of disaggregated and comprehensive workforce data.
• Collaborate commissioning and funding reform to enable cultural ways of working and to respond to the needs and preference of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
• Investment in locally designed, interdisciplinary teams centred on cultural knowledge and community authority, supported by development of further knowledge and understanding of their value and impact.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander governance embedded in all workforce planning, funding, program delivery and evaluation.