Symposium on Money and Psychiatry: An Introduction

Abstract

Psychiatry, like all other branches of medicine, is presently undergoing substantial self-analysis and change. Health expenditure is escalating (perhaps not so much in psychiatry as in the more“high tech” disciplines), the population is increasing and the prevalence and impact of the common disorders is on the rise. At the same time, with Government funding increasingly under pressure, the proportion of the Budget allocated to health spending is declining—in fact, it is now significantly less than what is needed to achieve real health outcomes in the community. This is becoming commonplace in all industrialised societies but is particularly true in the Australian context, where a decrease in the number of people taking out private insurance has placed increasing demands on the public health system. A range of strategies has recently been put forward to look at ways of using the health dollar more efficiently as well as developing funding models for mental health services.