Mental health and suicide prevention services will get a $38 million boost at a time when many Canberrans are suffering from mental distress.
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In a bilateral agreement, the federal government will invest $25.2 million and the ACT government will contribute $12.9 million over five years to expand services that are most needed.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the five-year deal would ensure Canberrans have access to additional mental health support when and where they need it.
"This landmark agreement will be of immense benefit to everyone in the ACT, and will support our ongoing national recovery from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic," Mr Hunt said.
The funding targets the "missing middle" to help young people, adults, expectant parents and those with early stages of eating disorders to get early intervention.
ACT Mental Health Minister Emma Davidson said there had been a significant increase in demand across all types of services.
"Frankly, everyone in the entire community has been having a really hard time lately," she said.
"There's not a single person in this city who hasn't been heavily impacted by what's happened over the last couple of years."
Young people at risk of developing mental health conditions will benefit from $9.5 million to be spent on the existing headspace centre and developing a new youth-at-risk program delivered by the ACT that will help those with complex needs, such as drug and alcohol dependence, homelessness and trauma.
Ms Davidson said young people were among the hardest hit by social isolation and lost income.
"It's an area of need that we've been really wanting to address for quite some time, so to have the Commonwealth come in and support us in addressing this need is really helpful," she said.
The Head to Health service that opened in October will receive $8.3 million in further funding to help connect adults to care in a more integrated, seamless way.
More than 2500 children and their families will be assisted by $9 million in initiatives in line with the National Head to Health Kids Hub model.
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A universal aftercare system for people who have had a suicide attempt or suicide crisis will receive $6 million. Ms Davidson said the Way Back Support Service delivered by Woden Community Service will be expanded with this funding so that people who have not made an attempt but could be at risk will be able to get help.
"I think this is going to have some really good beneficial effects for Canberrans that we'll see for years to come, in terms of preventing people from having other attempts and making sure that they can stay on track with their recovery afterwards," she said.
The deal includes $2.8 million to improve perinatal mental health screening and improve the capture and reporting of nationally consistent perinatal data.
It also will put $1.9 million towards community-based early intervention services to treat people in the early stages of developing an eating disorder.
Ms Davidson said the government was in the process of finding the right provider for this service.
"That's a service that will help people while they're still at home in the community with their family or with their carers to really address the psychosocial and cultural elements that are part of an eating disorder."
There are no specific time frames for implementation of the new and expanded services.
The bilateral agreement will also build and support the mental health and suicide prevention workforce, including the peer workforce.
- If you are in distress, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit headtohealth.gov.au