Shangri-La and the integration of mental health care in Australia

Sebastian Rosenberg

doi:10.1071/phrp2731723

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Shangri-La and the integration of mental health care in Australia

Sebastian Rosenberg ^A ^*

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia

^* Correspondence to: sebastian.rosenberg@sydney.edu.au

Public Health Research and Practice 27, e2731723 https://doi.org/10.17061/phrp2731723

Published: 26 July 2017

2017 © Rosenberg et al. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence, which allows others to redistribute, adapt and share this work non-commercially provided they attribute the work and any adapted version of it is distributed under the same Creative Commons licence terms.

Abstract

We wanted the best, but it turned out like always. (Viktor Chernomyrdin)¹According to literary legend, Shangri-La is an idyllic and harmonious place. Mental health is aspiring to its own Shangri-La in the shape of better integrated care. But do current reforms make integrated practice more or less likely? And what can be done to increase the chances of success? The aim of this article is to review the current state of mental health reforms in Australia now under way across Primary Health Networks, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, psychosocial support services and elsewhere. What are these changes and what are the implications for the future of integrated mental health care? Is Shangri-La just over the horizon, or have we embarked instead on a fool’s errand?