National Review of Mental Health is now out!

Another report and another review which will take years of consultation.

All of this was said way back when the Richmond report came out in NSW in the 1970s. I read bits of this report only recently.

I wasn't aware of it but this was the review that pushed MI people out of care onto the streets to look after themselves.

All of the debates by state and federal governments go on about reform and consultation blah blah blah.

Consultation for what.

The policy frameworks and their implementation lack focus and coherence. Service providers and advocacy groups compete for attention and resources, each with their own agendas.

The situation could not be worse.

People with lived experience and ignored, and worse, told what will be good for them without insight into their condition.. Where is the practical help we are told will flow to us like rivers of gold.

Regional Australia is like a prostrate cow, brought low by a lack of sustenance.

There is little money and no cross pollination of ideas between professionals, simply because there are not the large profits in working in small regional towns.

The big cities don't fare much better, with non contiguous policies between the state and the commonwealth and an inability by both service providers and the profession to hone in on a suite of policies actually relevant to people with mental illness.

Professor Fells was head of the ACCC and he of all people should be aware of conflicts of interest and ineffective policy.

Each new doyan of mental health, each new minister and all the other apologists for the non progress in the sector should try and get a handle on what effects MI people actually at the coal face.

But that would actually mean getting your hands dirty.

I saw a chart recently which listed all of the major charity's in Australia and gave the proportion of donations received which were allocated to providing executive support to the various CEOs of these organisations, their big salaries free cars and big offices and so forth.

If you want your hair to stand on end just have a look at those figures.

I don't see anything improving soon. I just think there will be another talk fest with no outcome, just like all the rhetoric around mental health week.

Sorry to be so negative.