Greens promise $260m for free counselling in youth mental health package

The Greens are promising a $260 million youth mental health package, to fund free counselling for anyone under 25.

They're also promising to fund more community initiatives in the health and education sector, begin a mental health inquiry, and work towards extending the free counselling to adults.

Green Party leader James Shaw said more needed to be done to support people through hard times, so that hard times didn't get worse.

"We need to end the stigma and shame for our young people around emotional wellbeing, encourage people to speak up, and when they do, make sure there is help readily available.

"Every suicide is a tragedy, and we know from overseas evidence that there are things government can do that will make a difference to stop suicides from happening.

"At the moment we are just not ambitious enough, and our services are not doing enough."

The Greens policy said every suicide was preventable, and that the Government should be working on a zero suicide philosophy.

Shaw said that approach had been used in Detroit, where it led to a 75 per cent drop in suicide within four years.

It had also been trialled in Liverpool in the UK, and Shaw said that while there was no proper data yet on the results, it looked promising.

The Greens' plan includes more staffing for youth mental health, psychiatrists in hospitals, more nurses in acute mental health wards, and more support staff.

Waiting times for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service was described as a "national shame".

In 2016 4940 20-year-olds sought appointments, but a third of them had to wait longer than three weeks after being referred to a mental health specialist.

Health spokesperson Julie Anne Genter said suicide was preventable, not inevitable.

"We have to break the assumption that there's nothing we can do.

"Government has a very important role to play in protecting and empowering families and communities, so that they don't have to suffer this type of loss."