Authors: Margaret Goding
Year: 2002
Event: 2002 TheMHS Conference
Subject: book of proceedings, Management, Administration, Policy, Strategic Planning & Mainstreaming
Type of resource: Conference Presentations and Papers
Abstract: In 1992, the first National Mental Health policy was endorsed. This paper focuses on the policy of mainstreaming, that is the integration of public mental health services with general health services. Implementation in Victoria is described, commencing with adoption of the policy by the Labour Government, followed by full implementation by the Kennett Liberal Government. Despite the implementation of this policy in Victoria, and its partial implementation in other Australian states and the United Kingdom, there is little documented evaluation of its success in improving mental health services. To start to address this gap, public mental health clinical directors and managers of area mental health services in Victoria were surveyed. Although 90% of respondents indicated that overall mainstreaming had improved services, especially in regard to quality, efficiency and accountability, there were some concerns regarding diminished protection of mental health funding in the general hospital environment, and less cooperation between services.
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