Five thousand accountants will receive mental health first aid training under a project supported by three professional accounting bodies and the Australian government.
The Department of Innovation, Science, Energy and Resources awarded a $2.24 million grant to a project run by Deakin University and the Institute of Public Accountants to roll out the training over the next two years.
A recent study by the department found that nearly one in three owners of small to medium enterprises had experienced stress, depression or anxiety in the past 12 months.
The Institute of Public Accountants (IPA), Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and CPA Australia have joined forces to deliver the program.
CPA Australia's Jane Rennie said members had been seeing clients who were in desperate and traumatic situations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Throughout the pandemic accountants have played a critical front line role in ensuring that government supports reached people and businesses who need them," Dr Rennie said.
Dr Rennie said accountants were seeing thousands of small and medium enterprise owners and so were well-placed to have a broad public impact in helping them access mental health support.
"They're not doctors and we're not training people up to be medical practitioners, but it's like being a sort of first aid first responder with mental health."
IPA's Wayne Debernardi said mental health was an emerging theme in the IPA-Deakin SME Research Centre's work over the past few years and it was good to see government funding going into the initiative.
"It's probably true to say that accountants are in a fairly unique position where basically when they're dealing with their small business clients, they will actually see those first cracks, those first signs where some of their clients need assistance," Mr Deberardi said.
