Distributed Advocacy Day
Information pack
1 / Distributed Advocacy Day– Information pack

Contents

Background

Template Letter

Quick Meeting Guide

Draft Questions on Notice

Template Media Release

Social Media

Feedback Form

Background

Countdown to Reform

Right now, the Australian Government is undertaking a range of processes to determine how they will plan much needed reform for our failing mental health system.

These processes, aimed at developing a national plan on mental health, include:

  • a COAG working group, announced by the Federal Minister for Health, Sussan Ley
  • an Expert Reference Group on Mental Health
  • a set of workshops by the Australian Government Department of Health (the first of which was held on 6 August 2015).

In addition, we know that:

  • bilateral agreements on the NDIS will be agreed between most states and territories and the Commonwealth in the coming months, and
  • a number of other processes may have an impact on mental health, including the federation white and green papers, the review of welfare, primary health and the Medicare Benefits Schedule.

At the heart of this work is responding to the National Mental Health Commission’s Review of Mental Health Programmes and Services.

All these processes are due to report in the coming months, with a formal response from the Commonwealth in December 2015.

The ‘Countdown to Reform’ campaign aims to raise the profile of mental health across the country and encourage the Commonwealth to meet its December deadline.

Key Messaging

The national messaging we want delegates to take to their meetings is as follows.

Before parliament rises at the end of 2015, the mental health sector calls on the Australian Government to:

  • Release a fully costed plan for fixing Australia’s broken mental health system, in response to the National Mental Health Commission’s recent National Review and the many reviews, enquiries and evaluations and other reports on mental health which came before it
  • Release a fully funded transition plan giving consumers, carers and service providers certainty about the future of community-based mental health services

By the end of 2015, the mental health sector also calls on the leaders of all governments to:

  • Agree to long-term national targets for improving whole-of-life mental health outcomes, and indicators to demonstrate progress towards those targets, in keeping with COAG’s stated commitment in December 2012
  • Agree a National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan setting out roles, responsibilities and funding in the mental health system across the government, community and private sectors, and ensuring that services are delivered in and by the community wherever possible

Further Reading

For more information, delegates can also review the following materials.

1)Policy Backgrounder – can be used as a handout at meetings

2)Our Joint Open Letter to the First Ministers

3)Blueprint for Action on Mental Health – either the full document or the at a glance document can be used as a handout at meetings

Template Letter

Dear Member/Senator

I’m writing to invite you to take advantage of an opportunity to meet with key representatives from the mental health sector in your local area.

As you may know, the Australian Government is currently considering its response to the Review of Mental Health Programmes and Services, conducted by the National Mental Health Commission.

This Review provides governments with a once in a generation opportunity to properly address our failing mental health system, an issue identified by the voting public as one close to their hearts.

In the months of September and October 2015, mental health consumers and carers, service providers and stakeholders are meeting their elected representatives across the county. We are hoping you will join other representatives in understanding how these issues are important to the nation.

These issues also have particular relevance to (THEIR ELECTORATE) due to:

  • (LOCAL ISSUES)
  • The uncertain future of the PHaMs Program (and/or other programs)
  • Our difficulties attracting and retaining staff
  • The uncertainty of the timetable for NDIS roll out – which is as yet unknown

Nationally, around four million Australians will experience a mental illness this year, so I know you will be keen to join us to discuss this potential watershed moment in mental health reform.

For example, in your electorate, our best estimate is that there are (X – SEE SPREADSHEET – ATTACHMENT A) people with severe mental illness, but only (Y – SEE SPREADSHEET – ATTACHMENT A) of those will be eligible for the NDIS. We note this is only our estimate. Perhaps a Question on Notice could help you better understand the situation locally. We have a question prepared for you and will bring it to our meeting.

In addition, we also want to discuss with you (MORE LOCAL ISSUES).

Attending the meeting will be (LIST PARTICIPANTS AND ORGANISATION).

We will be contacting your office as a follow up to this letter, however, please feel free to contact us directly on (YOUR DETAILS).

Sincerely

XXXXXXX

Quick Meeting Guide

Quick Guide to Organising a Meeting with Local Politicians

When you have pulled your delegation together (we can assist with this) and agreed on who you wish to meet (SEE ATTACHMENT C AND D – LIST OF SENATORS AND MEMBERS), the following is a quick guide to locking in those meetings.

Making an appointment

1)Send your letter (template on previous page) requesting a meeting. List everyone who will attend on it, so the politician is aware of who is making the request.

2)Get a number of options from your group for times and dates that work for everyone. It is likely you will get no more than 30 minutes with the politician.

3)If someone in your delegation has a personal relationship with the politician, ask them to follow up the letter with a direct call to the politician to request a meeting.

  1. Brief the Member or Senator at the time of this conversation on the basics, so they can ask their advisor to prepare.
  2. Follow this up quickly with a call to the diary person in their office.

4)If you don’t have any existing relationship, undertake the following process:

  1. Call the office of the politician and ask for an advisor.
  2. Explain the need for the meeting and forward a copy of your letter to the advisor. This allows the advisor to research and brief the Member or Senator prior to the meeting.
  3. Speak to the diary person to lock in a date and time.

5)Lock in everyone’s diaries for the time made with the politician.

Tips for meeting with politicians

  • Appoint a chair from the group, to lead the discussion.
  • Ensure your delegation includes a range of people, including consumers, carers and service providers.
  • Keep your points brief, start with the national messages, don’t over complicate the issues, don’t use jargon or go for too long on any one issue.
  • Give everyone a chance to speak.
  • Ask the Member or Senator questions and give them time to answer.
  • Remain bipartisan at all times, mental health must be above party politics.
  • Ensure you discuss the impact to local services and programs.
  • Ask the Member or Senator to undertake an action, and report back to the delegation when they have done it (like speak to the Minister for Health, bring it up in party room meetings, ask the draft Questions on Notice (below), etc).
  • Bring a camera and the social media placard(ATTACHMENT B) and get a photo with the Member or Senator.
  • Leave the Member or Senator with something to read, like our policy backgrounder document, or the Blueprint for Action on Mental Health (full or at a glance).
  • Send a thank you letter following the meeting.

Draft Questions on Notice

To the Federal Minister for Health and Federal Minister for Social Services:

1)How many people with a severe mental illness live in (YOUR LOCAL ELECTORATE)?

  1. How many of these people are expected to be eligible for the NDIS?

2)How many people suicided or attempted suicide in (YOUR LOCAL ELECTORATE)?

3)What mental health programmes are provided in (YOUR LOCAL ELECTORATE)?

  1. Please provide details of the organisation, funding amount and term of the agreement

4)What is the level of unmet need for mental health services in (YOUR LOCAL ELECTORATE)?

  1. What is the Government’s strategy for closing the gap in that unmet need?

Template Media Release

MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS IN (LOCAL ELECTORATE)

Today, mental health representatives of (LOCAL AREA) joined together to meet with (LOCAL MEMBER/SENATOR) to discuss the future of mental health reform in Australia.

One in five people from (LOCAL AREA) will experience mental health issues this year. This reality will see an increasing strain on our health and hospital system as well as (LOCAL PROGRAMS) unless real and meaningful reform is undertaken.

The delegation, consisting of representatives from (LIST OFORGANISATIONS) met with (MEMBER/SENATOR) to discuss (LOCAL ISSUES).

(LOCAL ISSUES AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS).

“(LOCAL POLITICIAN) was particularly interested in this issue (OR NOT) and we felt they now understand some of the local impacts our failing mental health system has on (LOCAL AREA),” XXXX said following the meeting.

“We discussed (ISSUES LISTED IN YOUR ORIGINAL LETTER) as well as a number of issues that are impacting the whole country.

“Issues like the roll out of the NDIS and the Commonwealth’s response to the National Mental Health Commission’s Review of Mental Health Programmes and Services are all having an impact on our sector and the (LOCAL AREA) community.

“Australia currently has no national plan for mental health. We must ensure an achievable long-term plan is formulated to fix our system, one that has clear roles and responsibilities, clear targets and indicators and a properly funded transition plan.

“Number one on the list should be sustainability and stability for programs like (LOCAL PROGRAMS OR SERVICES).

“While reform is vital, we must maintain the services and programs people are using now, while we build the system of the future.”

ENDS

Media contact: XXXXXXX

Social Media

Participants are encouraged to utilise social media to further our advocacy activity. Below are a couple of suggested Tweets and a Facebook post. We encourage you to find any account names or pages for the politician you are visiting and include these.

In addition, at the end of your meeting, we encourage you to take a picture of your delegation with the politician holding the placard (ATTACHMENT B), with the words "Mental Health Begins with Me". You can then post this image to social media using the hashtag #mentalhealth #auspol and our account @AUMentalHealth (so we can track social media activity). We also ask you provide the photo to us, so we can create an album.

Twitter suggestions

  • Today we met with (@POLITICIAN)to discuss their commitment to long-term #mentalhealth reform #auspol @AUMentalHealth#(LOCAL AREA) (attach image or pic of delegation)

e.g @SANEAustralia met with @sussanley to discusscommitment to long-term #mentalhealth reform #auspol @AUMentalHealth #Albury

  • Joined (@POLITICIAN)to discuss ​long-term targets & indicators for improving #mentalhealth outcomes #auspol @AUMentalHealth#(LOCAL AREA)

e.g. Joined @sussanleyto discuss ​long-term targets & indicators for improving #mentalhealth outcomes #auspol @AUMentalHealth #Albury

Facebook

Upload photo if you’ve got one

Today (I/we/organisation) met with [insert politician name] to discuss long-term #mentalhealth reform in Australia and particularly for [insert name oftown/district/electorate].

Key local issues discussed were:

[insert here]

Feel free to participate in this discussion by providing your commentsbelow or at Mental Health Australia's Facebook page

Feedback Form

Delegation chair:

Delegation members:

Meeting details

Politician:

When:

Where:

Outline of discussion:

Action requested:

Follow up plan:

Media activity (if any)

Media outlet:

Time and location of story:

Outline of story:

Talent in story:

1 / Distributed Advocacy Day– Information pack
1 / Distributed Advocacy Day– Information pack