MARK COLVIN: It’s been eight months since the Government received a major report on Australia’s mental health failings. PM understands a failure of mental health experts to agree on all the recommendations has held up crucial reform. The Health Minister has ordered a separate review of the report’s recommendations. Many in the mental health sector are frustrated by what they say are unacceptable delays to improving care for suicidal Australians. Bridget Brennan reports.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: Poorly planned, and a massive drain on people’s wellbeing. Those were the findings of a National Mental Health Commission report ordered by the Federal Government to look at Australia’s mental health system.  It was ready last November, but there’s still no word on whether its recommendations will be put into practice. One of the report’s authors is psychiatrist and mental health expert Professor Ian Hickie.

IAN HICKIE: At this stage, there’s been no clear signal from the Government as to which recommendations are actually being acted on. There are really urgent issues in mental health, in suicide prevention, in service reform, in support for Aboriginal health workers, in the mental health nursing program – all decisions that can be announced and can move to implementation.  So it is entirely unclear at this stage to what degree the Abbott Government actually seriously intends to implement any of the recommendations of the national commission.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: Among the recommendations were reducing suicides by 50 per cent in a decade, and paying for more services for regional areas. The Health Minister Sussan Ley has appointed a 13 person expert panel to advise her on the report. The group has until October to make its findings, close to a year after the original report was finished. That timeframe is a concern for Kim Ryan, the executive officer of the College of Mental Health Nurses.

KIM RYAN: Well as of yet the Government hasn’t done anything with the report from the National Mental Health Commission except to establish an expert reference group to have a look at the recommendations made by that report. It would concern me that we have another review of another review, but we actually need to get on and implement some of the recommendations that have come out of the review.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: But PM understands there’s been disquiet among mental health groups about parts of the Mental Health Commission’s report. Some groups wanted a review of the recommendations. Frank Quinlan from Mental Health Australia says it’s complex reform.

FRANK QUINLAN: The National Mental Health Commission’s report is a huge report, 700 pages and makes more than 200 recommendations about reform that is urgently required in mental health. Some of that can be done quickly and should be done quickly, but some of it, sadly, is going to take some time because it’s going to mean bringing state and territory governments to the table and solving some problems in state and territory government relations that have been holding back the mental health system for too long.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: And psychologist Dr Ben Mullings from the National Mental Health Party believes some of the recommendations are confusing.

BEN MULLINGS: There was a lot of work to be done around trying to draw out exactly what specific recommendations the review was asking for. So for instance, around psychological care in the Medicare system, what we saw was a recommendation that there should be more sessions available for people who need them, but there were no clear recommendations on exactly how that would be put into practice. There were some other issues in there that as a psychologist I felt were a little bit problematic.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: One of the men who wrote the report, Professor Ian Hickie, thinks there’s no time to waste on another review.

IAN HICKIE: Australians with mental illness and those that live with these illnesses, people themselves and their families, have been incredibly tolerant and have taken the Abbott Government at their word that they would act during this period of the Parliament. We’re in great danger of any significant decisions being out beyond 2016 and out beyond 2017. That’s entirely unacceptable. There are lives to be saved in rural and regional Australia today, there are major services to young people, there’s early intervention, there’s support for housing, for employment, for education. The greatest tragedy is that those who always miss out, with these delays and these bureaucratic processes, are those who live in the rural and regional areas of Australia where services are thin on the ground.

MARK COLVIN: Professor Ian Hickie ending Bridget Brennan’s report.  This article first appeared ABC, 26 June 2015.