Liberals pledge mental health support

STATE election campaigning arrived in Ballarat on Tuesday, with opposition leader Matthew Guy visiting Federation University’s Camp Street campus.

Accompanied by the shadow minister for mental health Emma Kealy, he pledged to improve the mental health system across Victoria if a State Liberal-National government is elected.

“There is a massive mental health crisis that needs to be fronted head-on and dealt with. We will fix this… by undertaking Australia’s biggest recruitment drive,” he said.

“Some of this plan of initiatives will bring mental health workers into every Victorian school… and see a simple reclassification of counsellors as mental health practitioners.”

Under the recruitment drive, it’s expected that thousands of additional mental health workers would be sought and employed, responding to final recommendations from the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.

The plan also includes financial support for undergraduate mental health students and tertiary qualified mental health workers in their post-graduate period, establishing additional training spaces for psychologists and psychiatrists, and packages to attract mental health workers to Victoria.

“Federation University is leading a fantastic initiative… looking at psychologists being supported for their supervision,” Ms Kealy said.

“This is in-line with what we have committed to through our funding program for more support for post-graduate and undergraduate places, supervision and internships, and we would be able to deliver that through universities like Federation.

“We need to make sure we can get psychologists’… training done, and have them available for our local community, including here in Ballarat.”