So our effectiveness to provide a voice was overcome by the absolutely overwhelming demand. It’s only recently that we’ve been able to do it again. It was my own little team in my very unsophisticated office that realised the suicide figures. We have the Department of Health administering billions of dollars, and none of them have ever said, suicide is the leading cause of death.

Colin Tate: Chris, is mental health the poor cousin within the (NSW) Health Department?

Chris Shipway: Amongst the mental health and drug and alcohol brethren, the drug and alcohol workers will say if only we had things as good as mental health. Usually, if you want to find the drug and alcohol service, if it’s hospital-based, and down the back of the hospital near the incinerator in what looks like a tool shed. How do you connect all of those other services that should be providing support and advice to people who are contemplating suicide?

The bulk of the funding for GPs who will be one of the players in this is coming from the Commonwealth. Most of the administration and priority-setting around the delivery of mental health services delivered by public health systems are run by the state governments.

Pat McGorry: We have so many suicides because we’re not identifying and intervening. We could reduce the suicide toll to about one-third – just like’s been done with the road toll – if we provided that. That’s why I say, it’s mostly preventable.

Lisa Munsie: We need to review how we assess mental health claims. The onus of proof for a person with a mental illness or physical illness is a very complicated process that they don’t necessarily understand. In many ways we encourage mental ill health to develop down the track if we do enact that process. It goes back to product development.

I’d like to see the involvement of rehabilitation, irrespective of liability. In the end, the decline-rate of claims for any type of disability has decreased significantly over the last 10 years. I’m not saying we accept every single claim, but when you consider having a more equitable process, we’ll see some great things happen.

John Mendoza: There are some great online programs and Government doesn’t have to spend a lot of money to get a lot of value. We can have strategic investments such as the HeadSpace investment from the Commonwealth.