Dr. Shari McDaid:

There have been concerns for a long time about the separation between addiction services and mental health services. It is helpful that the Senator has brought up this broader point about the evidence increasingly showing that certain illegal drugs seem to have an association with severe mental health difficulties. I refer, in particular, to psychosis, where there seems to be a link with certain drugs. We need to get out that message. One of the issues on which we are not focusing enough is the prevention of mental health difficulties. We may never be able to cope with demand if we do not put more effort into prevention and educating people about how they can prevent mental health difficulties.

The Senator's point is well made. However, a challenge often arises with people who have a history of addiction or misuse of illegal substances when they present with a mental health difficulty. Too often in our system they are turned away from one service or another. They are told that they have to sort out their addiction issues before they can be seen in the mental health service or vice versa. It is probably more often the case that a person ends up in addiction services when he or she also needs mental health service supports. Those supports are not being deployed in an integrated way. I hope that failure will be addressed in the revision of A Vision for Change. I do not think that policy was very helpful. It seemed to conceive of addiction issues and services as being separate from mental health difficulties, unless there was a clear mental health difficulty prior to addiction. I hope the next mental health policy will recognise much more that substance and alcohol misuse often feature among those with mental health difficulties and that holistic support is needed.