Increased demand for ACT mental health services due to coronavirus

Mental Health Community Coalition executive officer Simon Viereck said there had been an increased demand on many Canberra services, particularly telephone counselling such as Lifeline and Beyond Blue.

Nationally, Beyond Blue has had a 40 per cent increase in calls from this time last year, with callers more distressed and anxious than before coronavirus.

Mr Viereck said there had been a "strong increase" in homeless people reaching out to ACT mental health services.

"That's where the most immediate and significant escalation of need is."

Accessing those people in the community, he said, could be difficult via telehealth or digital platforms and said an "outreach response team" could be effective to deliver services.

Heightened stress and anxiety amid the crisis was also creating a new group of vulnerable people, many who have never required mental health support previously.

"We also have a population of families and others who are now at home in stressful situations, people we wouldn't normally think of as vulnerable and who we don't see in services but who are now under so much increased stress whether that's financial or for other reasons, they are now tipping into being quite vulnerable."

Despite the increase to several services, Headspace Canberra have had a decline in referrals for young people.

Centre manager Phillipa Northam encouraged young Canberrans to access support if they needed it.

"We do have capacity to take on new referrals and to support young people, and we are able to do that via phone and video to comply with physical distancing requirements."

ACT Mental Health Minister Shane Rattenbury said while the physical response to COVID-19 had been rapidly addressed, the mental health consequences would gradually build up, requiring a more "long-haul" response.

"Between the smoke and the bushfires and the hailstorm and now into COVID-19, a lot of people are feeling fatigued just from 2020 and the year that it has been," he said.

"It's hard to know what the community response will be. When we look at the impacts of COVID-19 it is uneven across the community. For those who have lost jobs or had other strains it's going be to much more difficult."

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The national cabinet is expected to discuss a national mental health response plan on Friday.

Mr Rattenbury said the ACT needed to ensure requirements of existing clients were met as well as those who were reaching out to services for the first time.

"We're currently assessing what the mental health needs are in the ACT," he said.

"We're assessing what our needs are both for the partner organisations that we fund but also for government services."

National Mental Health Commission CEO Christine Morgan said on Wednesday despite an increase in calls to counselling services nationally, overall less people were presenting at mental health services - a situation not being experienced in the ACT.

Mr Rattenbury said people were still attending appointments, albeit virtually, and there were still people presenting at emergency departments with mental health needs.

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