Fix Mental Health and you fix health

Fixing Australia's mental health system is a key priority area if we are serious about fixing up the existing health system - that was the message from the AIHW report Australia's Health 2008.The AIHW report found that mental health accounts for: Over a third of all health costs for adults 15-44; A quarter of the burden of disability for all diseases; Over 20 million prescriptions a year; 13% of all health costs; the fourth most common reason for seeing a GP; and, over 3 million hospital bed days per year. Another key statistic revealed in the report was that mental illness was the leading cause of years lost due to disability (24% of all years lost or around 330,000 years). This reflects the fact that 75% of all mental illness occurs before 25 years of age and, if left untreated, can result in lifelong disability. The AIHW report also highlights that the average cancer, diabetes, stroke or coronary heart disease patient will stay four times longer in hospital is they also experience a mental illness. "These statistics speak for themselves. Mental illness is at the very heart of our health and hospital system," said Mr David Crosbie, CEO of the Mental Health Council of Australia. "The burden of disease caused by mental illness is 13% but governments only invest around 8% of health expenditure on mental health. Moreover, the vast majority of this spending goes into hospital and acute services. This report confirms that we are locked into what we currently do and who we currently service. This leaves little scope to invest more effectively in the proven community-based and early intervention social services we know are desperately needed across our community. As well as helping people with a mental illness, investment in these new services will have a major impact and relieve pressure on our hospital and health systems," Mr Crosbie said. The Mental Health Council of Australia is the independent, national representative body of the mental health sector in Australia. www.mhca.org.au