Last night the media revealed a government mental health report that highlights the need for improved funding of community based mental health services in Australia, triggering a diverse social media conversation about some of the pertinent issues.

Key highlights include people reporting:

• barriers to accessing mental health care
• major challenges when seeking mental health care for the first time
• being turned away from mental health care when help was needed
• suicides related to lack of timely access or followup to mental health care
• the suicide rate has been largely steady in Australia for many years – a failure to reduce mortality
• recognition that suicide is preventable – and especially so if we can improve access and point of care service delivery for mental health help seekers

A recommendation from the leaked report is reportedly that a significant investment be injected into improving community based mental health services. This is a good idea. It is not a new idea – there have been many advocates and voices bringing forth this suggestion. More mental health professionals at the the cutting edge – in primary health and in community health and other settings. More investment in helping young people – enabling their care, not inserting more barriers and waiting until they become so unwell that hospitalisation is the only choice. Community mental health care is a poorly funded and barely accessible – unless you get lucky. Luck is not a sustainable commodity on which to base the ongoing mental health of the population. The social media discussion is one that should generate some pressure to release the report to the public and to invite the public to generate new ideas to address the challenges of providing a fair, equitable and accessible mental health service to the population.

Here are some of the links to the recent social media conversation:

https://www.facebook.com/breakfastnews

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2015/s4216497.htm

on twitter: https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=%23heretohelp&src=typd

Mental health nurses have a great deal to contribute to the development of improved models of mental health care delivery for Australia, and they need to leading and consulting in the current debate. Some are bring more prominence to the debate by reminding the community that mental health nurses are here to help, an that they should not be overlooked in the develop of new models, policy and governance. mental health nurses should be included as full members of committees that seek to bring progress and improvement to what many are terming a ‘broken service’ (mental health service). Using the hashtag #heretohelp , nurses are advocating for inclusion and for improvement. If you see a #heretohelp hashtag – consider retweeting it or sharing it to show support for mental health nurses.

Nurses do an amazing job working to care and prevent many deaths caring for people with a wide range of mental health problems. In our acute services they are working with people in crisis and restoring many people to health and wellness. Among health professionals – nurses are the great proportion of clinicians caring for people with mental illness. That position gives nurses an important perspective on the delivery of mental health care. Nurses need to be listened to, and their work considered carefully in future planning.

I am a mental health nurse, bucket loads of clinical experiences and plenty of research experience as well… I have published work that makes recommendations for improving the delivery of mentla health care to rural people… here are soem of my ideas and recommendations in this portfolio of papers: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rhonda_Wilson3

I am #heretohelp  – join me!