National Mental Health and Disability Employment Strategy
On 14 September 2009, the Minister for Employment Participation, Senator Mark Arbib, and the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services, the Hon Bill Shorten MP, released the Government’s National Mental Health and Disability Employment Strategy.
The Strategy sets out a number of priority actions to assist Australians with disability, including mental illness, into work. It recognises the importance of education and training as a pathway to sustainable employment, and the role of employers in increasing employment opportunities for people with disability.
The Strategy has been developed as part of the Government’s Australian Social Inclusion Agenda which aims to address the barriers faced by people with disability, including mental illness, that make it harder for them to gain and keep work.
You can download a copy of the Strategy by clicking on the following links:
Hard copies of the paper, including alternate formats, can be ordered by calling 1300 363 079 (TTY 1800 554 609), or emailing employmentstrategy@deewr.gov.au.
You can also read the Minister for Employment Participation and Parliamentary Secretary’s Joint Media Release (this link will take you to a new web site):
Strategy Consultations
The Strategy is based on extensive public consultations with some 700 people from 380 organisations—including people with disability, their carers, advocacy groups, employers, trade unions and service providers—taking part in these consultations and more than 300 written submissions were received.
On 22 December 2008, a paper was released that set out the direction for the Strategy. The paper was developed as a result of the consultation process for the Strategy and detailed some important elements of the Strategy that had already been achieved.
You can download a copy of the paper by clicking on the following links:
- National Mental Health and Disability Employment Strategy—Setting the Direction
( PDF 256KB) | RTF 140KB)
Accessibility
If you have difficulty accessing any of the information on this page, please call 1300 363 079 (TTY 1800 554 609), or emailing employmentstrategy@deewr.gov.au.
To open the PDF (Portable Document Format) links on this page, you may require Acrobat Reader. To access a free download of Acrobat Reader click on the following link (please note that this link will take you to a new web site):
To open the RTF (Rich Text Format) links on this page, you may require Microsoft Work Viewer 2003. To access a free download click on the following link (this link will take you to a new web site):