The former president of the United Kingdom Royal College of Psychiatrists says Australia will fall behind the rest of the western world if mental health services are not prioritised.
The annual Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Conference continues today on the Gold Coast, and will look at key areas for improvement in the mental health sector.
Professor Dame Sue Bailey says Australia has been a great innovator in mental health but that the sector’s efforts can be quickly undone.
“If we don’t continue to practically support child mental health services, to help them in turn help all of the other agencies – teachers, schools, avoiding offending – we can help lots of other people, but to do that you need a critical mass of professionals, well trained and just getting on and doing the job,” she said.
She says having more “psychologically minded” doctors would yield greater outcomes for patients.
“For instance, we get what we call diagnostic overshadowing,” she said.
“We know that patients with mental illness die some 15 to 20 years younger than the rest of the population. This has to be both wrong morally, wrong in terms of we should be offering treatment and it’s got a high cost to society when they develop chronic illnesses.”