Treasury called for submissions regarding the Employment White Paper Terms of Reference.
The National Mental Health Consumer & Carer Forum (NMHCCF) submitted a response to the call for submissions in November 2022.
Reason for submission
Employment remains strongly associated with positive mental health and wellbeing, however mental health consumers and their carers face extensive and deeply entrenched institutional, structural, and cultural barriers to employment.
The NMHCCF Submission focused on the following key points:
- Stigma and discrimination are still huge barriers to employment
- Lack of workplace and employment readiness programs to adequately equip those with mental health challenges and their carers to return to work or seek work in the first place
- The complexity for consumers and carers accessing government supports/payments can be overwhelming
- The Disability Support Pension and Carer Payments – inadequate payments to satisfy basic needs, barriers to access, and ill-equipped to deal with the episodic nature of most mental illnesses
- Difficulty accessing support for disadvantaged groups
- Organisational policies are often not set up to support employees living with mental ill-health
Read the full submission & recommendations:
Submission to Treasury: Employment White Paper Consultation
