Commonwealth Government announces extended funding
The Commonwealth Government has announced a further investment of $121.29 million in Primary Health Networks (PHNs) to provide an additional 12 months support for consumers that are transitioning from Personal Helpers and Mentors (PHaMs), Partners in Recover (PiR), and Day to Day Living (D2DL) programs to the NDIS.
This is in addition to the Government’s earlier commitments to invest in a National Psychosocial Support Measure and Continuity of Support for consumers found ineligible for the NDIS.
The Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, announced that PHNs will contract with existing community mental health providers to deliver services under this additional funding. At this stage, we are still uncertain if One Door Mental Health will be one of these mental health service providers.
We understand this news is untimely for some of our staff, consumers, and carers as we have already begun the process of linking our consumers from the above programs to other appropriate services in order to ensure they have the support they need beyond 30 June 2019 when funding was expected to cease.
Additionally, we have received news that the Commonwealth Government will extend funding to support the transition of carers from Mental Health Respite: Carer Support (MHR:CS) to the Integrated Carer Support Service (ICSS) until 30 November 2019. From September 2019, a new network of Carer Gateway service providers will help carers to access new local and targeted services including peer support, coaching services and a new phone-based counselling service.
As we wait for further updates from the Government, we will continue to work as quickly and actively as we can to transition our consumers to the NDIS or provide alternative support for those who are found ineligible for the NDIS. We are working as rapidly as we can to setup new psychosocial support programs with SWSPHN and WSPHN, that will provide centre-based psychosocial services with mobile outreach support to people living with a severe mental illness and not eligible for the NDIS in these areas.
The many changes to funding have imperilled where we can continue to provide services, however, you can rest assured that One Door continues to strongly advocate for everyone who is impacted by the changes across the sector.
If you are unsure of how these changes effect you, the Department of Health has provided a fact sheet for consumers and carers, you can download it here (PDF 489.8KB)
We will be sure to keep you updated with any further news and changes as they come about.
Kathi Boorman | CEO