Vic. budget makes landmark commitment to workforce

Mental Health Victoria (MHV) welcomes the $1.3 billion in mental health spending and investment committed by the Victorian Government in the 2022/23 Victorian State Budget.

Tuesday’s budget builds on the $3.8 billion committed in the 2021/22 State Budget, and demonstrates the Victorian Government’s ongoing political and fiscal commitment to implementing the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System (RCVMHS) in full, and on time.

A line by-line breakdown of the budget announcement can be found here.
 
MHV particularly welcomes the landmark scale of investment in the mental health workforce.

“The investment of $372 million is the biggest single investment in supporting the mental health workforce in Victoria’s history,” says John Foley, joint acting CEO of MHV.

“The commitment spans psychiatry, psychology, mental health nursing and allied health, all of which are professions with systemic, structural workforce shortages.

"The investment in our workforces has the potential to alleviate short- and medium-term pressures on our clinical and community services, and strengthen our ‘baseline’ for the longer-term reforming vision of the RCVMHS.”
 
MHV represents over 120 member organisations, working in all parts of Victoria’s mental health and aligned sectors.

Early feedback from some MHV members expressed concern at the scale of investment in community managed mental health services, the unclear status of funding for Victoria’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Hubs, and a lack of granular detail on specific initiatives to support Victorians from diverse communities.

MHV welcomes the Victorian Government’s investments to support MHV members organisations Eating Disorders Victoria, Youth Live4Life, and the ongoing commitment to improving Victoria’s mental health system with an enormous capital expenditure on clinical services.