27 October 2005
"FINANCIAL BOTTOM LINE MORE IMPORTANT THAN PEOPLE WITH MENTAL ILLNESS"
The recent release of the report "Not for Service" into Australia's mental health system revealed "a national disgrace" and represented "a moral crisis before our very eyes" according to Francis Sullivan, executive officer of Catholic Health Australia
Mr Sullivan went on to say that "The report clearly demonstrates that governments and private health insurers restrict access to services for the mentally ill purely for financial reasons" with the result that "basic human rights are being denied to desperate and vulnerable people."
"Despite thirteen years of national initiatives mental health services are embarrassingly inadequate, people with dual diagnoses are left abandoned, young people at risk are isolated and bureaucratic 'duck shoving' has become an art"
The full report can be viewed at the Mental Health Council of Australia website.
Student readers of this bulletin who have participated as volunteers on the St Vincent de Paul Soup Vans as part of their Amberley Ministry Retreats would have some appreciation of the plight of some of the mentally ill in our community.
Mr Sullivan went on to say that "The report clearly demonstrates that governments and private health insurers restrict access to services for the mentally ill purely for financial reasons" with the result that "basic human rights are being denied to desperate and vulnerable people."
"Despite thirteen years of national initiatives mental health services are embarrassingly inadequate, people with dual diagnoses are left abandoned, young people at risk are isolated and bureaucratic 'duck shoving' has become an art"
The full report can be viewed at the Mental Health Council of Australia website.
Student readers of this bulletin who have participated as volunteers on the St Vincent de Paul Soup Vans as part of their Amberley Ministry Retreats would have some appreciation of the plight of some of the mentally ill in our community.
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