WA’s Minister for Health and Mental Health Amber-Jade Sanderson says funding for youth mental health services will be increased to help supply Acute Care and Response Teams across Perth and the Great Southern.

This newest pledge is part of the WA Government’s $129 million total investment towards Infant, Child and Adolescent reforms to improve mental wellbeing.

The funding comes after the ICA Taskforce found current youth-focused mental health services are unable to
meet increasingly high levels of support needs for children across the state.

Curtin School of Population Health Professor David Lawrence says the ICA Taskforce broadly recognised a gap between demand and supply of mental health support for youth.

“We know that childhood and adolescence is the major period for the onset of mental health problems. We also know that mental health issues in childhood and adolescence have a huge impact on young people’s learning and educational attainment,” he says.

“But we also know that there is a huge mismatch between the number of young people who are experiencing high levels of distress, including self-harming behaviours and suicidal behaviours, and the resources that are available. “

Professor Lawrence says the announcement from Minister Sanderson is welcome but there are other services that are critically needed.

“There is a significant crisis in terms of workforce supply. We don’t have enough psychologists and psychiatrists and even GPs with mental health expertise to provide support when it’s needed to young people,” he says.

“We also need to address the gap between the critical services and the potential to provide support to young people when mental health problems are first developing so that we can support more young people before they get to the crisis stage.” 

The Garden Family Medical Clinic Director Andrew Leech says he has seen an increase in prevalence of mental illness in children and adolescents.

“There’s fairly exponential increases across all age groups really from about two to 25 and I’m seeing a significant increase in demand for services,” he says.

Dr Leech says government funding to provide services is important to prevent adolescent mental health crises.

“Early intervention for any condition is really valuable and really beneficial and very important but none greater than mental health because the impact that has on a child’s life is significant,” he says.

“So managing any mental health condition early. And getting on top of it as quickly as possible with the right therapy and the right support is crucial to that child’s development and or that adolescent learning and ongoing self-esteem and capacity in what they do in life.”

The government says supplying ACRTs across WA should help alleviate the number of children presenting to emergency departments for crisis-level mental health issues.

The state government has also invested a further $4.7 million to continue the WA Country Health Brief Crisis Intervention Service to support regional patients.

If you or someone you know is experiencing mental illness, you can contact Headspace at 1800 650 890 or the organisation’s online chat support service. You can also contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service at 1300 659 467.