Bupa announce $1m for innovative mental health models
Bupa have announced a one-million-dollar funding initiative for practical research that leads to improvements in mental health models of care in Australia.
Through the Bupa Health Foundation, the money will be provided to an alliance of research and industry partners who can work towards improved models of care in mental health and how best to fund them.
Bupa Health Foundation Executive Leader, Annette Schmiede, said there are more than four million Australians living with mental health conditions with the cost of mental health related services estimated to be close to $8.5bn per annum.
“There is a clear need for progressive models of care that are aligned with the health needs and care preferences of today’s population. Along with the opportunity to utilise the available data and technology of a modern health system,” Ms Schmiede said.
“At the moment services are often delivered in isolation of the broader health care and social care needs of the individual. We’re looking for a cross-section of research and industry groups to work together on this project to represent different perspectives, organisations and parts of the health sector.
Ongoing investment in the development of mental health models of care that result in the best outcomes for the patient as well as the health system is urgently needed, and we hope this may be one step in addressing this pressing healthcare matter for Australia
The following mental health research themes have been identified as areas of interest:
community delivered mental health care designed and delivered to meet that needs of the modern consumer;
holistic models of care that integrate mental wellbeing and illness care with wider healthcare and social systems;
evaluation and/ or scalability of innovative mental health models of care; and
digitally-enabled models of care that promote accessibility, appropriateness and efficiency of mental health care, including use of data for informing and evaluating models of care.
The Bupa Health Foundation is accepting Expression of Interests from 13 August 2018 until Monday 17 September.
All details on the Foundation Grants Program including criteria can be found at: www.bupa.com.au/foundation
The successful project/s will be announced in December.
