Jason Frenkel
Herald Sun
2 0oct 05

AUSTRALIANS with a mental illness are despairing because of failures in the health system, a new report has found.

The Not For Service review of mental health services in Australia paints a bleak and damning picture, while calling for an overhaul of the system.

It says a lack of funding and co-ordinated strategy to tackle mental health problems had led to a nationwide shortage of services, leaving patients vulnerable to a raft of other social problems.

Victorian services rated better than those interstate, but the report says there is still a shortage of acute care and lack of mental health beds.

Compiled by a coalition of mental health groups and the Human Rights Commission, the report is based on the testimonials of thousands of people with experience in the system, including patients.

It says people with chronic mental disorders and their families and carers were most likely to bear the brunt of a failing system.

"Any person seeking mental health care runs the serious risk that his or her basic needs will be ignored, trivialised or neglected," the report said.

The authors called for a major funding boost from all levels of government, so that 12 per cent of the entire health budget would be spent on mental health by 2010.

An extra $100 million was needed in Victoria next year.

The report's release triggered a fresh round of finger-pointing among health politicians, even though the report identifies the bureaucratic blame game as a key obstacle to improved services.

Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott repeated his call for the Commonwealth to control health policy -- a plan already rejected by Prime Minister John Howard.

"If one level of government was in charge the buck-passing and the cost shifting would end," Mr Abbott said.

But Labor health spokeswoman Julia Gillard said the takeover plan was a ruse to disguise the Federal Government's failure in mental health.

"It's not an absence of power but an absence of will," Ms Gillard said.

State Health Minister Bronwyn Pike also accused the Federal Government of not doing enough, but said the report ignores improvements of the past five years.

Beyondblue chairman Jeff Kennett was similarly critical, labelling the report a disgrace that ignored money being put into the system and reflected only on the bad experiences of the past.