Mental health prevention in Australia: Establishing a Preventative Mental Health Task Force to evaluate and recommend mental health prevention initiatives

Abstract

Mental health conditions are increasingly prevalent in Australia, necessitating targeted prevention initiatives to mitigate their impact. Effective mental health prevention requires large-scale public health responses, collaborative action, and long-term financial commitment. Yet, there are considerable challenges to implementing prevention initiatives in Australia, including the complex causes of mental health conditions, influences of social determinants, lack of scientific consensus on best prevention methods, short-term policy focus, and no clear mechanism to determine which prevention strategies should be recommended, funded, and delivered at scale. This paper describes the United States Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) as a potential model for guiding mental health prevention initiatives in Australia. We propose the creation of a government-supported Preventative Mental Health Task Force to rigorously evaluate mental health prevention initiatives and make tiered recommendations, supported by mental health organisations, lived experience advisors, First Nations people, and experts in the field. As the first step, we recommend the establishment of an expert advisory group to determine how the task force would operate. Establishing a mechanism to consider, implement, and fund the task force's recommendations is also essential. This type of evidence-based, coordinated approach to mental health prevention would add immense value to Australia's existing focus on early intervention, suicide prevention and recovery support, providing a new tool to tackle rising rates of mental ill-health.