The key elements for effective partnering with clinical mental health services

Governments, academics, clinicians and the service sector, including the homelessness support sector, have been calling for the integration of clinical mental health and non-clinical services since the beginning of the deinstitutionalisation period. The first National Mental Health Plan for Australia in the period 1993-1998 included the priority area 'Linking mental health services with other sectors'. However, the International Mid-Term Review of the Second Mental Health Plan for Australia found that many of the priorities identified in the first plan remained fundamental to the Second Mental Health Plan for Australia, including integration.