Consultation on Productivity Commission Recommendations on Mental Health – Response to the Survey

This document sets out Research Australia’s answers to the Australian Government Department of Health’s survey consulting on the recommendations of the Productivity Commission’s final report on mental health, with each answer limited to 500 words. Confining itself to recommendations on research and its implementation, Research Australia identifies as critical for the short term Actions 11.1 and 12.3 on evaluating existing programs; Action 22.1 for a new National Mental Health Strategy; Action 22.7 to establish the National Mental Health Commission (NMHC) as an interjurisdictional statutory body; Action 23.3 for a Special Purpose Mental Health Council; Action 23.8 for a Mental Health Innovation Fund; and all of Recommendation 24 on building an information and evidence base. It maintains that billions have been spent on community services with little evaluation, that evaluation funding should be built into service funding, and that implementing and scaling research findings must be funded, resourced and clearly assigned. It names data collection and cross-jurisdictional cooperation as the main costs and barriers, and recommends consultation including people with lived experience and carers. As gaps, it maintains that the NMHC needs power and resources to commission research supporting its monitoring and evaluation, coordinated with the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Medical Research Future Fund and state funders, and that multiple Clinical Trials Networks are needed rather than one, covering different diagnostic groups, age cohorts, rural and regional populations and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.