Pop-up clinics won’t solve mental health crisis
It's good to know the money is there, but spend it on primary care and protecting the staff we have.
The Federal Government’s Head to Health program it will create 10 new “pop-up” clinics at a cost of $10.6 million, it was announced today.
The announcement included a commitment for these clinics, available only for those with mental health conditions that have arisen as a direct result of the covid pandemic, to be up and running in four weeks. The clinics will be run by dedicated mental health professionals, but no medical professionals. The brief is to take calls and redirect people to the appropriate mental health services, and not to provide direct crisis management.
As a psychiatrist who has worked at the front line of acute mental health services since the pandemic began, I am somewhat impressed that such an initiative could attract such funding and be rolled out in such a short time.