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NMHCCF Submission on Foundational Supports

05 December 2024

Summary

The National Mental Health Consumer and Carer Forum (NMHCCF) is pleased to provide the following submission to the Department of Social Services (DSS) on Foundational Supports.

The NMHCCF is responding to this submission opportunity as Australia’s national voice representing lived and living experience of mental ill-health, and the Disability Representative and Carer Organisation (DRCO) for psychosocial disability in Australia. The NMHCCF argues that Foundational Supports, in order to better support the ‘missing middle’ and their family, supporters, kin, and carers, need to:

  • address one’s fundamental needs of safety, security, and stability,
  • be flexible, fluid, holistic, and person-led,
  • focus on early intervention1, prevention, and non-clinical supports across the lifespan,
  • and embed evaluation and accountability measures, to be co-produced with the Lived Experience community.

1Here, the definition of early intervention refers to the one used by the NMHCCF in its Official Statement on the NDIS Final Report. Early intervention must understand and align with the complex nature of psychosocial disability, as well as its recovery principles, and the term ‘early’ in no way refers to the age of the participant.

Key themes and recommendations

Through a two-part consultation process with members of the NMHCCF, this submission uncovers several key themes that, if addressed under Foundational Supports, will improve the lives of mental health consumers and carers. These include:

  • Community-centred support.
  • Psychosocial and holistic support.
  • Family/kin/carer support.
  • Inclusivity and accessibility.
  • Evaluation and accountability.
  • Funding and structural consistency.
  • Early intervention and prevention.
  • Person-led, flexible access.
  • Addressing basic2 needs.
  • Workforce development and integration.

With the NMHCCF being the national voice for and by people with lived and living experience of mental-ill health and their family, supporters, kin, and carers, it is in a unique position to provide the following recommendations:

  1. Prioritise basic2 human needs – align with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, not against it.
  2. Build and invest in culturally sensitive, community-based support structures.
  3. Invest in consumer and family/kin/carer peer-led initiatives that meet both practical and social needs.
  4. Recognise and fund programs specifically targeting caregiver support and respite​.
  5. Work through trusted, established organisations already serving local communities.
  6. Embed regular evaluation assessments in support programs to adapt them based on community needs and service outcomes.
  7. Employ collaborative, non-competitive funding models to provide more consistent support and achieve more equitable service distribution.
  8. Focus on early intervention1 and prevention.
  9. Take a person-led approach.
  10. Cater for flexible service intake and fluid transition between services.
  11. Upskill the peer workforce across regions.

2Basic needs refer to the fundamental, essential human needs as outlined by Maslow in this article. These are the survival (physiological) needs and safety/security needs of human beings.

Brief conclusion

The incoming Foundational Supports system will be consequential for the psychosocial disability community. In the most recent ‘Analysis of unmet need for psychosocial supports outside of the National Disability Insurance Scheme,’ there were an estimated “230,500 people with severe mental illness aged 12-64 years who required psychosocial support but were not receiving psychosocial support through the NDIS or other government-funded programs (p. 9)” in 2022-23. Developing and funding evidence-based psychosocial support programs as part of Foundational Supports will improve the lives of this ‘missing middle’3. Simultaneously, strengthening NDIS processes to better cater to participants and their families, as well as improving mainstream services at the front end will better support the entire psychosocial disability Lived Experience sector – from prevention to crisis intervention. If this new psychosocial landscape is implemented as outlined in this paper and co-produced with Lived Experience, the “oasis in the desert” (p. 3) will soon begin to resemble the Nile.

3Here, the ‘missing middle’ is shorthand for the people with moderate to severe psychosocial disability and their family, supporters, kin, and carers who do not receive assistance from any government-supported disability program but require more assistance than mainstream supports.

The submission

NMHCCF Submission on Foundational Supports