Landmark research launched by SANE identifies the barriers to mental health care and provides a blueprint for fixing Australia’s fragmented mental health system.
SANE recently launched results from the national Digital Navigation Project for the first time at a public webinar earlier this month.
The Digital Navigation Project is Australia’s most comprehensive investigation to date into the barriers people face when trying to access mental health support. More than 2,000 stakeholders from across Australia were consulted including consumers, carers, service providers and subject matter experts.
The Project – commissioned by the Australian Department of Health and led by SANE in partnership with Nous Group and a consortium of expert sector organisations – is a direct response to the complex challenges identified in the Productivity Commission Inquiry and ‘Better Access’ review.
According to SANE CEO Rachel Green, results clearly show our fragmented system is restricting access to appropriate care options and actively driving people towards unsustainable, and often unhelpful, acute or crisis services.
‘Currently, help-seekers must navigate a confusing and often traumatising system, typically starting with online searches that lead to something described to us as a ‘Google loop of despair’.
‘This poor experience is leading to significant delays in finding and accessing appropriate care, resulting in poorer outcomes and unnecessary strain on acute services that are already struggling to cope with demand.’
Key findings from the Digital Navigation Project
- Multiple digital directories and online tools exist, but are further contributing to confusion for help-seekers due to incorrect, incomplete or out-of-date information.
- Common pain points for help-seekers include uncertainty over which service is most suitable for their needs, a lack of visibility over costs and wait times for services, limited anonymity in the process and a lack of choices.
- Many existing mental health support services aren’t coordinated with others, leading to a situation where help-seekers need to repeat their stories again and again.
- Most digital mental health supports are designed for first-time help-seekers, not the significant majority who already know what they are looking for but need help finding it (67% of survey respondents).
Project recommendations outline strategies to reshape how people access and utilise mental health care in Australia and create a more inclusive, person-centred and user-friendly help seeking experience.
‘As a society, we currently invest more resources into the technology behind buying a pair of shoes than we do for mental health care,’ said Rachel Green.
‘Imagine what more funding could achieve if we unlocked technology’s full potential to enable digital mental health platforms to speak to each other, backed by a reliable, AI-powered national database.
‘Currently, people experiencing mental health challenges find all roads lead to ad hoc crisis services or the GP – which is costly for health services to deliver and often involves long wait times for treatment. Greater alignment of digital mental health platforms offers the potential to control this traffic and help people find the targeted support they need for a faster recovery.
‘The Digital Navigation Project tells us what needs to be done to take these findings and recommendations and turn them into meaningful action.’
For more information about the Digital Navigation Project, to read the full findings report or watch the webinar, visit sane.org/digitalnav.