Call for more mental health support services
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Tasmania's Mental Health Council wants funding for more community services. (ABC News)
Today marks the start of mental health week and Tasmania's Mental Health Council is calling for State Government funding for more community support services.
The government recently announced more than $10 million in funding for clinical services.
But the Council's Michelle Swallow says most people living with mental illness never use these services.
She says they would benefit more from community-based support centres, which there is a chronic shortage of.
"One in five people have a mental illness, but most of those people don't end up in clinical in-patient services," Ms Swallow said.
"Most people with a mental illness live in the community, and we'd call on the government, the state government to think about how they might fund and support the work the community sector does, at an equivalent level that's just been injected into state government mental health services," she said.
