Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan: 2019 Progress Report 2

The Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan (Fifth Plan) was endorsed by the COAG Health Council in August 2017. The Fifth Plan represents a commitment from all governments to work together to achieve integrated planning and service delivery of mental health and suicide prevention related services.

The Commission has been given responsibility for delivering an annual report, for presentation to health ministers, on the implementation progress of the Fifth Plan actions and performance against the identified indicators. In preparing the 2019 Progress Report we worked with the stakeholders identified in the Fifth Plan implementation plan, the Australian Government Department of Health, state and territory governments, Primary Health Networks and state mental health commissions. 

This report outlines the progress achieved in implementing the Fifth Plan actions during the Fifth Plan’s second year, and presents the available performance indicators that are designed to collectively provide a picture of how Australia’s mental health system is performing. Overall, the implementation progress of the majority of actions across the implementation plan has been reported as ‘commenced – on track’. However, some areas have not progressed as scheduled in the implementation plan.

The available performance indicators show that at the national level, some aspects of the health and wellbeing of Australians are stagnant and some are experiencing small, sustained deterioration. Nationally, some aspects of the mental health system are consistently improving, while others remain stagnant. A number of performance indicators also show a disparity between people with and without mental illness, suggesting that more work is also needed in these areas.