Government Fine Tunes Commitment

NSW Health Minister addresses MHWA delegates at MHWA Conference 22 June 2005.

The NSW government is currently 'fine tuning' its commitment to non-acute and community mental health and will release full details by September this year, said Health Minister Morris Iemma in his speech to the MHWA conference. The minister said the commitment would include dual diagnosis and early intervention, with a particular focus on young people. He said there would also be a focus on youth coming into contact with the juvenile justice system that were at risk of becoming mental health clients. Mr Iemma detailed current budget spending initiatives and answered questions from the floor. He said the general health budget had increased by 100 percent since 1995 and mental health spending had increased by about 150 percent. But he said the challenge in increasing the percentage of the health budget dedicated to mental health was that no one wanted to see money taken from other services.

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