Mental Health System Discussion

[King Elvis]

More of this type of shit will happen as the mental health cuts keep rolling in.

Yep.

No Govt has the will to make savings in areas they should (ie, State Govt employees being able to take both state and federal maternity leave); to fund the things that desperately need it.

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

Yep.

No Govt has the will to make savings in areas they should (ie, State Govt employees being able to take both state and federal maternity leave); to fund the things that desperately need it.

Not to mention the duplication of systems, process and resources across all Govt agencies

If Govts were to set up shared service centres to support all agencies in areas of finance, payroll, HR, procurement and accounts payable the efficiency gains would be huge and additional resources and funding could be reallocated to essential services

 

[feenix67]

Not to mention the duplication of systems, process and resources across all Govt agencies

If Govts were to set up shared service centres to support all agencies in areas of finance, payroll, HR, procurement and accounts payable the efficiency gains would be huge and additional resources and funding could be reallocated to essential services

This model exists in South Australia already. The problem is it labours under the same mismanagement as the rest of the public service

 

[little graham]

Wouldn't surprise me to see this come up at some point.

They sold some of the mental health facilities at Glenside to pay for the AO upgrade........

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

There's a lot in here feenix and I agree. We still don't grasp mental health as a medical issue. Our collective intelligence hasn't worked it out yet.

And we are certainly affluent but nowhere near enlightened as a society.

Is that it? Or are we unable to afford the countless millions that would need to be spent?

 

[King Elvis]

Pure conjecture on my part, but this will boil down to yet another failure of the mental health system. Why? Because I'm sure this wasn't the first time the Walsh's experienced difficulties with their son.

Consider the circumstances of a person who was hospitalised with a mental health issue that included psychosis and suicidal thoughts. This person, within a supervised hospital, is then assaulted by another patient. Consequently, this person is then sent to another hospital more equipped to deal with the abuse the person suffered. By taxi. And not admitted, but dropped off in the carpark. By a mental health professional who was accompanying the person.

I'd like to say that was a hypothetical circumstance, but its not. It happened last month.

Our entire mental health system is stuffed. It's under resourced and staffed by ill equipped "professionals". The person I refer to has since overdosed twice on prescription medication. Once during a subsequent hospital visit where they gave the person 30 days of medication on a " trust" basis, despite the person having a history of prescription drug dependency and abuse, and multiple suicide attempts.

This, in an affluent and supposedly enlightened society. And it happens to hundreds of people. Every. Single. Day.

I'm in total agreement with this.

We waste resources on stupid things, we spend a fortune on middle class welfare, negative gearing, super tax breaks and the like, while the vulnerable in society are not properly taken care of.

I'm a white middle class male, not a bleeding heart by any stretch, but our priorities as a society are messed up.

 

[pjcrows]

Is that it? Or are we unable to afford the countless millions that would need to be spent?

Certainly a part of it. A lot of it is the stigma still attached to mental illness. A lot of people are afraid/unwilling to seek help.

 

[feenix67]

Is that it? Or are we unable to afford the countless millions that would need to be spent?

Affordability doesn't preclude a mental health professional from escorting a person experiencing psychosis and trauma from the carpark to the admittance desk. Nor does it preclude a medical professional from perhaps not giving a psychotic, suicidal person a lethal amount of prescription medication.

There's no doubt the cost of running health systems is enormous. But is it higher than a human life?

 

[Cap]

I'm in total agreement with this.

We waste resources on stupid things, we spend a fortune on middle class welfare, negative gearing, super tax breaks and the like, while the vulnerable in society are not properly taken care of.

I'm a white middle class male, not a bleeding heart by any stretch, but our priorities as a society are messed up.

I don't think from a Governmnet perspective they are, the governmnet responds to public sentiment, usually too closely.

We have a very generous welfare program, medicare and healthy wage structure all supporting the vunerable.

The problem is, 24 hour care is expensive and as a society we've decided that we don't want that burden

 

[Bosley]

I don't think from a Governmnet perspective they are, the governmnet responds to public sentiment, usually too closely.

We have a very generous welfare program, medicare and healthy wage structure all supporting the vunerable.

The problem is, 24 hour care is expensive and as a society we've decided that we don't want that burden

Of course things can always be improved. Situation is a million times better than it is in many countries, where there are absolutely no mental health services whatsoever.

There is a reason there is a federal "budget". There is only so much to go around. Whenever money is given to one area it is taken from another and a large majority are always unhappy with the balance ... while the federal debt continues to mount.

 

[feenix67]

I don't think from a Governmnet perspective they are, the governmnet responds to public sentiment, usually too closely.

We have a very generous welfare program, medicare and healthy wage structure all supporting the vunerable.

The problem is, 24 hour care is expensive and as a society we've decided that we don't want that burden

I don't think anyone voted for the deinstitutionalization of the mental health system and subsequent transfer of that burden to other essential service professionals like the police and paramedics, not to mention the broader, unsuspecting community.

What's the point of spending *some* money ineffectively? We may as well spend no money.

 

[King Elvis]

Middle class welfare is important. Your middle class is your economy.

Agree with everything else. Upward distribution is destroying everything.

Wait no it's the people with no money and no power. They want to be there you see. They love wondering where their next meal will come from. To take advantage of others. #richlogic

Middle class welfare is not important; people earning $60k+ should not be receiving Government money. If we want to correct the tax system to reduce what they pay, fine, but churning it and giving it back is a disaster.

Who was the dickhead Labor MP who was telling us that the people in his electorate earning $120k+ PA weren't actually well off?

The rest, we're in agreement with

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

They sold some of the mental health facilities at Glenside to pay for the AO upgrade........

& the upgrade of Mental Health facilities attached to the main hospitals.

 

[feenix67]

& the upgrade of Mental Health facilities attached to the main hospitals.

Which, as my previous example clearly illustrates, has been entirely ineffective

 

[Apsaalooke]

Everyone does realise that big ticket items such as the Adelaide Oval development has taken away funding from health services including mental health?

 

[Moonwatcher]

Does the state of the public health system have any relevance in this case?

 

[feenix67]

Everyone does realise that big ticket items such as the Adelaide Oval development has taken away funding from health services including mental health?

Oh, you mean like that hospital we didn't need?

 

[Cap]

Middle class welfare is not important; people earning $60k+ should not be receiving Government money. If we want to correct the tax system to reduce what they pay, fine, but churning it and giving it back is a disaster.

Who was the dickhead Labor MP who was telling us that the people in his electorate earning $120k+ PA weren't actually well off?

The rest, we're in agreement with

I agree.

the fact that we have a system that takes it away, then gives it back it farking ridicolous

broadly speaking as I don't know specific modelling, but up the GST and drop income tax until you earn 100k

rule out all deductions.

 

[King Elvis]

What did Henry want; 30% flat rate or something, with minimal/no deductions?

I understand the emotion behind all of this, but what you're saying isn't true. The economy does better with this model, it's just a fact.

Evidence to support this fact?

 

[Lawrst]

I understand the emotion behind all of this, but what you're saying isn't true. The economy does better with this model, it's just a fact.

I'd like more info on this.

 

[thebeedee]

The public health system and mental health services have been stuffed for a lot longer than the past couple of years. I had to deal with them over a decade ago and it was a shambles then and I doubt it has improved now. Adelaide Oval upgrade whilst taking funding away from a multitude of areas is not responsible for our governments continued indifference to mental health services.

 

[Rusty Crow]

I understand the emotion behind all of this, but what you're saying isn't true. The economy does better with this model, it's just a fact.

Government doesn't want to remove negative gearing ( it not only applies to housing )
Governments provide housing for those that would not receive private rentals and at least here they are moving away from renting to people who could move into the private rental market.
So in the government view negative gearing shifts the management of housing onto private investors rather than having rents rise to cover costs and needing to manage more rent subsidies.
Defence Housing Australia shows they have no interest in holding viable rental property.

 

[Wood_Duck]

Government doesn't want to remove negative gearing ( it not only applies to housing )

For good reason.

Total collapse of the banking industry, building industry, the share market and a decade of recession while the economy recovers.

 

[JP Sauce]

Not to be a mod but this isn't really the thread for an economic discussion.

 

[Tadpole]

Not to be a mod but this isn't really the thread for an economic discussion.

I was thinking the same, but didn't have the guts to come out and say it.