Mental health delay leaves 220,000 NSW people missing support
Mental health negotiations between the Commonwealth and the states and territories have been delayed until December, as NSW figures show about 220,000 people are missing psychosocial support or carer support.
BEING, Mental Health Consumers and Mental Health Carers NSW called on the NSW Government to prioritise the next National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement after it was removed from the agenda of the Health Ministers Meeting on 4th September 2026.
The groups said talks had reached a stand-off over psychosocial support and who would pay for it. The current agreement originally expired in June 2026 and was extended by the Commonwealth for 12 months until June 2027 while a new package is negotiated.
NSW districts fall short
NSW Health analysis found 125,000 people in the state who need long-term psychosocial support are not receiving it, alongside about 95,000 carers. No local health district in NSW reaches half the modelled need. Far West was the best-served at 41.6%, while Northern Sydney was the lowest at 13.0%.
The same material said at least 67,500 people with severe mental health challenges in NSW are unable to access emergency care each year because of underfunding and understaffing of services.
Giancarlo de Vera, CEO of BEING, Mental Health Consumers, said: “This is a mental health crisis that requires the urgent attention of our nation’s Health Ministers, and yet, it’s been booted from their meeting agenda until December.”
From 1st October 2026, NDIS allocations for social, civic and community participation will be reduced by 50% and capacity-building daily activity allocations by 10%, according to the Commonwealth Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. The change applies progressively at each participant’s next plan reassessment over roughly 12 months.
Jonathan Harms, CEO of Mental Health Carers NSW, said: “95,000 carers in NSW needed support and did not get it. When a package is reduced the work doesn’t disappear: it lands on a mother, a partner, a sibling, unpaid and unseen.” NSW is leading the drafting of the new agreement, and the two groups want the state’s bilateral negotiations finalised before the NSW election in March 2027.
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