The 'Changes since the Royal Commission: perspectives on responding to mental health crises in the community' paper (the paper) explores perspectives on how things have changed when someone experiences a mental health crisis in the community since the Royal Commission concluded.
The Royal Commission acknowledged the important role that responding to and supporting people when they experience a mental health crisis in the community plays in the mental health and wellbeing system and made several recommendations.
This paper does not seek to acquit each element of the relevant recommendations made by the Royal Commission. Instead, we selected this topic because of its importance to consumers and because effective crisis response is essential in preventing harm, reducing trauma, and connecting people with the right care at the right time. It is important to families, carers, supporters and kin for the same reasons.
This work seeks to understand:
- what has changed in terms of the immediate responses when someone experiences a mental health crisis in the community
- what is working well
- priority actions to address the gaps and challenges that remain.
The Commission’s staff undertook this work, including members of the Lived Experience and Performance Monitoring and Reporting teams.
We gathered information from a range of Mental Health and Wellbeing Locals, call takers and management from Triple Zero Victoria, front line paramedics and management from Ambulance Victoria, general practitioners through a survey conducted by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, area mental health and wellbeing services across metropolitan, regional and rural areas as well as information available on websites, government reports and published papers.
You can download the paper below:
Updated