90% of Victoria's Mental Health Services Fail

Nineteen of Victoria's 21 adult mental health and wellbeing services are not meeting targets for admitting acutely unwell patients within eight hours. This data indicates a worsening situation since the 2021 royal commission, with only 46% of patients transferred to a bed on average, down from 49%. Five years after a promise to fix the system, over half of patients remain in emergency departments, indicating a critical shortage of specialist beds and community services.

Medical groups express alarm, noting that the government's claimed number of new mental health beds differs significantly from industry accounts, with only 174 beds confirmed against the royal commission's recommendation of 270. Seclusion and restraint usage also remains alarmingly high across adult and child mental health units, with some child units exceeding recommended seclusion rates by over 22 times. These systemic failures mean individuals often must become critically unwell before receiving care.