Mind Australia and our subsidiary One Door Mental Health welcome the New South Wales Government’s continued investment in mental health and suicide prevention in the 2026–27 NSW Budget. However, we are concerned that it doesn’t deliver the scale of reform needed to ensure people living with mental health challenges and psychosocial disability can access ongoing, recovery-focused support in their communities.
The Budget allocates $112.3 million for mental health and suicide prevention initiatives. This includes $43.3 million over four years for Lifeline crisis telephone, text and webchat services, $64.8 million to extend services under the NSW–Commonwealth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement (NMHSPA), and $4.3 million to support mental health peak bodies and community-managed services.
The continued funding for national agreement programs will help maintain access to free, low-barrier mental health support across NSW. It includes the 21 Medicare Mental Health Care Centres opening across New South Wales, including one in Canterbury managed by One Door Mental Health. Investment in peak bodies is also important because consumer, carer and community-managed sector voices must be central to mental health reform.
However, Mind is particularly concerned that the Budget provides limited certainty about the future of psychosocial Foundational Supports. These supports are expected to be developed as part of national reforms to the NDIS and broader mental health system, and must be jointly funded by the Commonwealth, states and territories. Foundational Supports will be critical for people who are not eligible for the NDIS, or who need help before they reach crisis point.
“Without a clear, fully funded and co-designed psychosocial support system, too many people will continue to fall through the gaps between clinical mental health services, the NDIS, housing, primary care and emergency departments,” Mind’s Executive Director of Operations in NSW, Denise Cumming said.
“Families and carers will continue to carry avoidable pressure, and people will be more likely to present to hospital when earlier support in the community could have helped them stay safe, connected and well. We know* from clinicians at emergency departments, and from people who go to them seeking help, that Emergency Departments aren’t designed for people with psychosocial disability and have limited capacity to provide support.”
Ms Cummings said community-managed mental health services play a distinct and essential role.
“They provide practical, relational and recovery-oriented support that helps people maintain housing, strengthen social connection, participate in education and employment, and navigate services. This support is not an optional extra to clinical care; it is a core part of what enables people to live meaningful lives outside hospital.”
Mind urges the NSW Government to use the next stage of national negotiations for the next NMHSPA to secure long-term, sustainable investment in psychosocial supports, developed with people with lived and living experience, families, carers, Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, multicultural communities and the community-managed mental health sector.
Ms Cumming said future investment must also go beyond crisis response.
“A stronger mental health system should include prevention, early intervention, step-up and step-down supports, community-based psychosocial support, services that link people to housing support, and workforce development across both clinical and community-managed settings,” she said.
“The NSW Budget keeps important services operating, and that is welcome. But maintaining parts of the existing system is not enough. People living with mental health challenges need certainty that support will be available before, during and after crisis — not only when they are at the point of greatest distress.”
Mind also looks forward to confirmation that New South Wales follows the UK’s “right care, right person” model which sees health workers rather than police attend mental health callouts if there is no crime being committed and no risk to life.
Mind and One Door stand ready to work with the NSW Government, the Commonwealth Government, sector partners and communities to design and deliver a more connected, compassionate and effective mental health and psychosocial support system. The next NMHSPA is a crucial opportunity to close service gaps, strengthen community-managed supports and ensure people can access the help they need to live well in the community.
*McIntyre, H., L. Hayes, M. Loughhead, A. Manudhane, C. Allen, D. Barton-Smith, B. Bickley, L. Vega, J. Smith, U. Wharton and N. Procter (2025). "The Complexity of the Emergency Department as Seen by People With Psychosocial Disability and an NDIS Plan and the Clinicians Caring for Them." Emergency Medicine Australasia On-line.