“Value” underpinning mental health reform recommendations.

Abstract

The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System has produced 65 commendable and ambitious recommendations, framing a bold new roadmap to inform, invigorate and reform Victoria’s mental health system. Much of the agenda appears to be derived from value-based health care principles. Value-based health care’s central tenet is that the overarching principle in redesigning health care delivery systems must be value for patients. Value is defined as the outcomes that matter to patients (relative to) the costs to achieve those outcomes. The recommendations for reform span across key themes within value-based health care frameworks, such as creating new integrated structures to support the system, challenging traditional mental health treatment models and calling for focus on patient and community-centred outcomes. The recommendations call for the development of a Mental Health and Wellbeing Outcomes Framework to inform government investment processes and assess economic benefits of the strategies proposed. This alignment of outcomes with the costs of care provision is a fundamental tenet in value-based care models.