3.8 Release of the Roadmap for National Mental Health Reform 2012-2022

The Roadmap for National Mental Health Reform (the Roadmap)²² represents the vision of the COAG in relation to mental health reform. The Roadmap emphasises that the voices of consumers and carers should be heard, and that policy should be guided by and respond to people's lived experience. The priorities of the Roadmap are to:

• Promote person-centred approaches
• Improve the mental health and social and emotional wellbeing of all Australians
• Prevent mental illness
• Focus on early detection and intervention
• Improve access to high quality services and supports
• Improve the social and economic participation of people with mental illness.

The Roadmap is accompanied by a set of Preliminary Performance Indicators to monitor progress across governments. The National Mental Health Commission (Section 3.7.1) is responsible for evaluating the Roadmap. The implementation of the Roadmap will be articulated in the successor to the Fourth National Mental Health Plan, which will be developed by the COAG Working Group on Mental Health Reform that has been established as part of the Roadmap. It is intended that the successor to the Fourth Plan will reflect the high-level aspirations and strategies in the Roadmap and convert them into more concrete medium-term outcomes.²³

²² Council of Australian Governments, The Roadmap for National Mental Health Reform 2012-2022, COAG, Canberra, 2012.
²³ COAG, The Roadmap for National Mental Health Reform.