SA Mental Health Strategic Plan

A Message from SA Mental Health Commissioner Chris Burns CSC

Partnering with South Australians to implement the SA Mental Health Strategic Plan 2017–2022

It’s an exciting time for the SA Mental Health Commission as we partner with South Australians to implement the SA Mental Health Strategic Plan 2017–2022.

Each project we are undertaking in partnership with South Australians – now and into the future – will be aligned to the three Core Strategies outlined in the Plan.

These Core Strategies are built on priorities identified by South Australians through the wide-ranging consultations undertaken to inform the development of the Plan.

The Plan, which was released in December 2017, sets a 20-year vision for mental health and wellbeing in South Australia, focusing on state-wide strategic directions over the next five years to build a more resilient, compassionate and connected South Australian community.

We continue to work toward our vision of South Australia being internationally recognised as a resilient, compassionate and connected community that takes a whole-of-person, whole-of-life, whole-of-government and whole-of-community approach to building, sustaining and strengthening the mental health and wellbeing of South Australians in order to grow our State’s mental wealth.

The Commission is in a unique position to partner with South Australians and bring together all stakeholders including people with lived experience of mental illness, their families, friends and carers; the community, service providers, government, non-government and private organisations, clinicians, academic institutions and the private sector. We also work across government agencies including housing, health, education, employment, justice and disability.

View All 22 Projects

• Supporting expectant and new dads in SA
• Building a mentally healthy public sector
• Promoting Older Persons’ Mental Health First Aid training
• Changing the language around mental illness and suicide
• Developing SA’s next Mental Health Services Plan
• Advocating for a professionalised mental health peer workforce
• Nurturing future leaders in mental health
• Increasing mental health literacy through the media
• Promoting SA Government mental health and wellbeing programs
• Strengthening workplace mental health & wellbeing
• Exploring measures of wellbeing and prosperity for SA
• Educating the community through sporting clubs
• Using data to drive innovative solutions
• Promoting events in the community
• Representing South Australia at state and national forums
• Conducting research into new models of care
• Organising conferences of leading thinkers in mental health
• Partnering with the History Trust to foster community connectedness
• Partnering with industry associations to promote mental health and wellbeing
• Influencing the state and federal agenda on mental health and wellbeing
• Identifying cooperative investment opportunities
• Facilitate UniSA students’ Visualising Mental Health education projects

SA Mental Health Strategic Plan 2017–2022

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“This is a Plan for all South Australians because good mental health and wellbeing are important for every one of us, for our families, our children, our local communities, workplaces and for the prosperity of our State.”

– SA Mental Health Commissioner Chris Burns

The SA Mental Health Strategic Plan 2017–2022 sets a 20-year vision for mental health and wellbeing in South Australia, focusing on state-wide strategic directions over the next five years.

The Plan sets the strategic direction for building a more resilient, compassionate and connected South Australia.

Its three Core Strategies and seven Strategic Directions present a unique and exciting opportunity to set the direction for greater productivity and prosperity by growing the mental wealth of our state.

Importantly, the Plan is built on the powerful feedback, stories and views of over 2200 South Australians of all ages across metropolitan and country SA during wide-ranging consultations. This is a Plan for all South Australians.

During those consultations, South Australians told us that good mental health and wellbeing lie beyond our hospital sector.

South Australians said we need to act early on the signs and symptoms of poor mental health before people reach a crisis point.

Read the Key Findings Discussion Paper

The Top 7 Themes from our conversations and consultations are:

• The importance of promotion, prevention and early-in-life intervention
• Community education to improve awareness and reduce stigma
• Achieving integrated service delivery (services that work better together)
• Access to the right care at the right time and the right place
• Services that better meet people’s needs
• Targeted responses for some groups (care that is relevant to my situation)
• Planning, funding and monitoring