MENTALLY ill people are being forced to go to hospital emergency departments because the state government is not spending enough money in the right areas, experts claim.
A new KPMG report has found the state government spends the lowest proportion on community-managed mental healthcare in the country — 6.8 per cent compared to an average of 13.9 per cent across the country.
This means people with mental health problems are forced to go to hospital emergency departments when they are in crisis.
There has been a 76 per cent increase in mental health related emergency department presentations between 2005 and 2017.
Mental Health Co-ordinating Council CEO Carmel Tebbutt, whose organisation funded the report, said this figure could be reduced if services reached out to people in the community before they hit rock bottom.
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