Spending just $7 extra per person could prevent 300 suicides a year, study shows
Melbourne researchers argue $153 million a year on mental health services in low-income and rural areas could save lives.
Medicare spending on mental health services varies considerably depending on where in Australia you live, our new study shows.
We found areas with lower Medicare spending on out-of-hospital mental health services had poorer mental health outcomes, including more suicides.
This variation across the country was mostly related to factors such as a shortage of mental health providers and GPs, rather than people in some regions being in poorer mental health in the first place.
We also looked at how much extra government funding in today’s money would make a difference to people’s mental health across the population, using the latest data.
