This call to action is for all government and parliament leaders to understand that this unacceptable loss of life is not only unnecessarily stealing years from people, but families are losing partners, parents, siblings, friends and colleagues. As a society we are losing creative, contributing, loving people, at a level where these deaths represent almost half of all premature deaths in Australia.

But it does not need to be like this.

There are actions that can be done NOW that will make a real difference;

• Basic physical health protection, screening and treatment services already exist – target these for people accessing mental health treatments.

• Since 1990 cardiovascular death rates have plummeted by 78%, and cancer and respiratory disease by more than 30%. But people with mental illness are not sharing equally in these advances in prevention, screening and treatment.

• Remove barriers to screening – if people with mental illness received the same level of access to care as the general community, such as health screenings or vaccinations, the evidence shows we would witness a dramatic reduction in preventable deaths from diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and infectious diseases such as influenza.

• One simple change: by increasing breast screening and subsequent breast cancer treatment rates for women with mental illness by just 20% (to the national average) would save one life a day.
• Efforts are underway but we need to keep up the momentum!
  

Equally Well Australia is funded by the Commonwealth to work alongside people with mental health lived experience to co-design solutions about their physical health needs, while also working in partnership with government and non-government health and mental health services.

Over 100 organisations have formally committed to the Equally Well vision through the National Consensus Statement, acknowledging that ALL governments have a priority to reduce this devastating health inequity.

Changes are happening, with new free access Medicare Mental Health Centres opening, but there needs to be greater innovation if we are going to make a long-lasting impact; to ensure people with mental health distress have the same access to health protecting programs and services, such as vaccinations, cancer, cardiovascular and diabetes screening and treatment as the rest of the population.

Equally Well calls for affirmative action to ensure equity of access to existing free national programs such as cancer screening and some vaccinations. We also call for funding to provide free access to influenza vaccination and nicotine replacement therapies. This basic human right to equity of access to quality health care, if realised, would protect health, reduce premature mortality, improve productivity for people with mental illness and reduce pressure on our already over-stretched health and hospital services.

Equally Well calls for tangible commitments to coordinate efforts across service systems, enhance workforce understanding and support targeted research to ensure the health gains enjoyed by the majority of Australians over the last 30 years are shared equally to the 20% of the population living with mental health conditions.