STRONGER TOGETHER: Rising mental health needs, rising local pressure

"STRONGER TOGETHER" is a weekly column where Tanya explores key issues. This week, Tanya discusses the rising pressure on GPs to manage mental health concerns and what this means locally in Bundaberg.

By IMPACT Community Services Managing Director Tanya O'Shea

Mental health is the leading reason people are walking through GP doors across Australia. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ Health of the Nation 2025 report shows that 71% of GPs cite mental health as a key driver of patient presentations.

This isn’t a sudden shift. Mental health concerns have sat at the top of the list since the survey began in 2017. What has changed is the scale: over the past eight years, there has been a 10% increase in GPs ranking mental health among their top three reasons for visits, underscoring the growing and sustained pressure on general practice.

RACGP President Dr Michael Wright notes that GPs have increasingly become the frontline for those experiencing mental distress. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this shift, with mental health–related appointments surging and remaining high ever since.

With 43% of Australians experiencing a mental illness in their lifetime, the demand for accessible mental health care continues to grow. That pressure is even greater in regional communities like Bundaberg, where support is often inconsistent and crisis‑driven. Instead, services should bridge these gaps by supporting people who fall outside traditional clinical boundaries (the ‘missing middle’) long before they reach breaking point.

The Hervey Bay Neighbourhood Centre’s 2023 report shows 12% of Bundaberg residents live with a long-term mental health condition, compared with 9.6% statewide. A 2025 Queensland Alliance for Mental Health report highlights widespread gaps in regional, rural and remote areas, including Bundaberg. Workforce shortages, fragmented systems and rigid eligibility criteria often mean people can’t access help until they’re in crisis, leaving local GPs to manage rising levels of unmet need and complexity.

There is, however, meaningful progress underway. In 2024, Bundaberg welcomed a new Medicare Mental Health Centre, offering free, walk-in support with no referral, Medicare card or appointment required.

It provides vital access to clinicians, peer workers, psychologists, nurses and social workers in a purpose-designed, trauma-informed environment. It’s no wonder that, less than a year after it launched, the centre had already delivered more than 500 occasions of service. It’s one of 61 Medicare Mental Health Centres funded nationally to provide care closer to home.

Still, Bundaberg needs sustained, long‑term investment to address structural gaps and ensure early intervention, continuity of care and true collaboration between services.

Because behind the mental health numbers are real people: people who deserve stability, and the opportunity to access supports well before they reach crisis point.