Mental health referrals by GPs and mental health-related prescriptions in the ACT have shot up in recent years.
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Medicare-subsidised mental health service referrals given by GPs jumped by 45 per cent between 2010-11 and 2014-15. The increase in the number of referrals between 2012-13 and 2014-15 was almost 25 per cent.
The total number rose from 42,076 in 2010-11, to 49,145 two years later, to almost 60,914 in 2014-15.
The trend was shown in a new report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare into mental health services in Australia.
The report also found doctors, including psychiatrists, prescribed more than a million mental-health related scripts in 2014-15, up from about 700,000 just two years earlier. Figures for previous years were not available for this category.
Tim Beard from the AIHW said the increase in referrals followed the national trend and more likely correlated with a rise in the number of people seeking help from their GPs as opposed to more people suffering from mental illness.
"Of course it is always a balancing act when looking at the numbers for these things," Mr Beard said.
"But I do think it means a lot of people who need support for their mental health are actually getting it and they are often getting it through their trusted GP. It also means there is more awareness about this than there was four or five years ago."
He said national statistics showed the prevalence of mental health had remained relatively stable in recent years, with one in five Australians aged 16-85 experiencing a mental illness in any one year.
However, a Mission Australia survey found the rate was rising among young people.
Its national survey found the likelihood of people aged 15-19 years developing a serious mental illness increased from 18.2 per cent to 20 per cent between 2012 and 2014. The likelihood for young women jumped from 23.2 per cent to 26.5 per cent.
As for the steep increase in prescriptions, Mr Beard believed more doctors were leaning towards giving anti-depressants as the range and effectiveness of available drugs grew, but acknowledged some researchers might associate the figures with a tendency by some doctors to over-prescribe.
The report also shows that ACT government's investment in mental health services grew an average of 7.2 per cent per year in the four years to 2013-14.
It also reveals clinical psychologists received the biggest increase in medicare funding in the four years to 2014-15 – a significantly larger increase than other psychologists, psychiatrists and GPs in the ACT.
Canberra's overstretched youth mental health service, Headspace, raised concerns to The Canberra Times in June about minimal investment in community-based mental health services.
A committee heard Headspace was trying to stretch existing resources to cope with a rising demand for its services and had been without an increase in federal funding since 2012.
When asked if government was doing enough to meet the steep rise in referrals to mental health services, ACT Health Minister Simon Corbell said the ACT Government supports services such as commonwealth-funded Headspace by providing clinicians to assist with assessments and referrals.
He also said the ACT government invests more than any other state or territory in community mental health programs.
"In 2015-16, the Budget invested $4.94 million for community mental health services growing to $6.78 million in 2016-17," Mr Corbell said.
"In the 2016-17 Budget the ACT Government invested an additional $1.48 million [for community mental health services]."
The ACT government recently opened a new Adult Mental Health Unit, redesigned the Emergency Department mental health suites and opened new mental health accommodation in Gungahlin, Belconnen and Tuggeranong.
Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison allocated an extra $151.4 million for health outcomes in Canberra in his first federal budget delivered in May this year, taking the total to $1.1 billion over three years.
