One in 10 Australians accessed Medicare-subsidised mental health services in 2018/19, new figures show. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data released on Thursday also showed national spending on mental health services will soon reach $10 billion a year. State, territory and federal governments spent $9.9 billion on mental health services in 2017/18. An average of $400 per person was spent on mental health services in 2017/18, up from $382 in 2013/14. The number of people using Medicare-subsidised services has doubled over the decade, from 5.7 per cent in 2008-09 to 10.6 per cent in 2018-19. Thursday’s data also showed 17.1 per cent of Australians received mental health-related prescriptions, with the majority of those antidepressants. Women were more likely to access mental health services than men. The farther Australians lived from metropolitan areas, the less likely they were to access mental health services. Funding for mental health mainly came […]