A truly universal health system
Post-Covid, we all know that life can throw us a curveball, or many. I never dreamt of working in mental health. Not by a long shot. Especially not as an adventure-seeking archaeologist. But, like so many of us, the experience of physical and mental illness has impacted my life, even redirecting my career.
I looked around and realised that health care in Australia is highly systematised, difficult to navigate and overburdened. Patients all too often become swept up in the mechanics of health care. They are viewed as the sum total of their body parts. Their entire health, and importantly, their wellbeing, is rarely the focus.
As it turns out, my dirt digging days were the perfect precursor to a career specialising in approaches to holistic health and wellbeing. I engaged with different communities. I learnt about the human experience through different periods of time and across cultures. It gave me a broad perspective of mental health, including combining the spiritual and health practices of eastern and traditional cultures with western medicine and science.
Even though our health system is world-leading, it is still primarily based on diagnostic and curative medicine. As society, we have already moved on from this deficient model. We understand the need to engage holistic care through well-designed systems and services. We know the value of preventative health and wellbeing. And we understand the impact of the social and environmental factors on each of these.
So why then is our health system so slow to adapt?
An obvious first line of inquiry is to critically investigate how finite health resources are allocated. For example, less than 1% WA’s health budget is directed to prevention. Yet, we have the highest rates of suicide in the Australia.
The burden of suicide disproporitionately impacts the already vulnerable in our community, but it has enormous social, health and economic impacts on all of us. Prevention saves lives, it promotes health and reduces costs in the medium and long term. Unfortunately, short-term political visions often stymy real investment in suicide prevention.
A second reason may be that our health systems revolve around professionals rather than individual patient needs. Even though we share biological, emotional and psycho-social commonalities, we are all unique. A focus on person-centered health care is the natural progression within our health system, and is one that is already taking place but not at the scale needed to meet contemporary needs.
Mental health care in Australia is in crisis. Poor service coordination and a pharmacological and talk therapy mindset has so far failed to stem the tide. Even though health professionals understand mental health exists on a spectrum, the systems in place to support mental health and wellbeing fail to connect the social, emotional, spiritual and physical dimensions of our lives.
Different therapies and modalities in care are needed to support things like self-care practices, mediation and mindfulness programs. Awareness, education and access to a network that is person-centered and easy to navigate also support the promotion of care autonomy. We also need to remember that all governments, institutions and corporations have a role to play in our health system. And to ensure that individuals are empowered.
The post-Covid era is our chance to redefine what health means and broadened the focus on health across all policy settings. That definition must have wellbeing as a fundamental pillar of every stage of the health journey across the life-span.
This article was first published in The West Australian in Renée Gardiner’s weekly column in Agenda, 20 February 2021.