CHF supports all the recommendations in the report. We agree with the conclusions in the Consumer Impact statement of the report, particularly around the importance of these measure in improving patient choice and access to primary health care that is ”timely, uncomplicated, culturally safe and affordable”. We believe that the package of measures, if fully implemented would achieve that and would do make a significant contribution to modernising our primary health care system.

Read the CHF Response to the Report from the Nurse Practitioner Reference Group

In March this year CHF undertook a consumer survey on mental health services to hear from people with lived experiences about how the current health service system works for them. In that survey we asked about people’s experience of care, from a system integration and patient centred perspective and asked for ideas about how it could be improved. We used the results of this survey to inform our submission to the Productivity Commission’s Inquiry into mental health services. The results from that survey echoed the evidence to the Reference Group and from a plethora of other reports on mental health service provision that there is a need to improve access to services and provide more choice. We agree that more needs to be done to help people access services closer to where they live and to make those services affordable.

Read the CHF Response to the Report from the Mental Health Reference Group