Spending uplift for mental health services across Western Australia

• $414 million invested in State Budget 2026-27 to boost mental health and alcohol and other drugs service delivery across the State
• New Crisis Recovery and Intervention Support Service will be trialled to better support people experiencing mental health challenges outside of hospital
• Pilot is backed by a $15.4 million investment in the State Budget
• $122 million investment to continue delivery of Social and Emotional Wellbeing services for Aboriginal people, expansion of suicide prevention services, and bolster community-based mental health and alcohol and other drugs services
• New five-year strategy to guide the transformation of the State's mental health and alcohol and other drugs systems released

The mental health and wellbeing of Western Australians is being supported in State Budget 2026-27 with a $414 million boost over the next five years.

As part of the Cook Labor Government's focus of delivering more support for Western Australians' mental health, one of the new initiatives funded this year is a State-first Crisis Recovery and Intervention Support Service.

The 10-bed service will be trialled to support Western Australians who require a higher level of support than what can be provided in the community setting, but don't require intensive hospital care, helping to ease pressure on emergency departments.

The trial will be funded through a $15.4 million investment in State Budget 2026-27, with negotiations underway to lease existing infrastructure for the service.

The investment is in line with the Cook Labor Government's new Mental Health and Alcohol and Other Drugs Strategy 2026-2031 (Strategy), which has just been published.

The Strategy will guide the transformation of Western Australia's mental health and alcohol and other drugs systems to empower people, families, and communities in their wellbeing.

Five strategic pillars highlight whole-of-systems priorities to support people to stay well and help ensure they have access to the services they need, regardless of where they live.

The Strategy was developed through consultation with people with lived and living experience, their families, carers and significant others, service providers, government agencies and non-government organisations, and communities across Western Australia, reflecting a wide range of perspectives and diverse needs.

In alignment with the Strategy, the State Government is also boosting services in the community across the State to support people closer to home and keep them out of hospital with $122 million committed in the State Budget to sustain and expand services and programs including:

• expanding the Perth-based Children and Young People Responsive Suicide Support program into the South West to deliver individual, group, and family counselling supports to children and young people who have lost someone to suicide;
• increasing suicide prevention workers in regional areas, to implement, lead, and support suicide prevention activities in their communities;
• short-term residential and therapeutic support for young people experiencing suicidal thoughts, as an alternative to presenting to the emergency department;
• continuation of the Social and Emotional Wellbeing program across Western Australia, providing holistic and culturally appropriate support to better meet the needs of Aboriginal people; and
• continuation of a funding boost to ensure the delivery of critical community-based mental health and alcohol and other drugs services, to support people to access high-quality support, closer to home.

Comments attributed to Mental Health Minister Meredith Hammat:

"As a priority, the Cook Labor Government is committed to working across agencies and portfolios to help ensure Western Australians are supported in a holistic way, and access the mental health, alcohol and other drugs services and support they need, when they need it.

"The Crisis Recovery and Intervention Support Service will be the first of its kind in the State, and an important initiative to provide person-centred care, outside of a hospital.

"The Strategy focuses on prevention and early intervention, as well as the delivery of more programs and services in the community to provide alternatives to emergency departments and hospitals, while ensuring access to high-quality acute care for those who need it.

"I look forward to working with all sectors across the community to bring about meaningful change to improve the mental health and alcohol and other drugs outcomes for all Western Australians."