The mental health system is making us sicker

Second, adopt stepped care. Reserve expensive, intensive services for those who genuinely need them. Start with low-intensity interventions and step up only when necessary.

Third, address contextual causes before medicalising them. Many difficulties we label as disorders are better addressed through employment support, affordable housing, or policy reforms than through clinical pathways.

Fourth, reward recovery rather than retention. Reward providers for helping people return to work, education, or independent living, not for keeping them in ongoing treatment.

Fifth, measure what matters. Track functional recovery and how many people exit the system, not just spending and sessions delivered.

None of this means abandoning people who are suffering. Severe psychiatric conditions require intensive, often lifelong support, and those affected should receive it without question. But drawing millions into treatment dilutes resources, creates dependency, and teaches people that normal struggles signify pathology.

A humane system sharpens compassion by distinguishing those who truly need lifelong care from those who need understanding, structure, and the opportunity to recover. It celebrates discharge as achievement, not abandonment.

If the twentieth century was the age of diagnosis, the twenty-first must become the age of recovery, measured not by how many Australians we enrol in the mental health system, but by how many no longer need it.