Sharon Witt knows all too well the devastation suicide causes families.

Key points: Ms Witt's former husband died by suicide after being turned away from hospital

Ms Witt's former husband died by suicide after being turned away from hospital The Victorian Government's submission to the mental health royal commission recommends more community-based care options

The Victorian Government's submission to the mental health royal commission recommends more community-based care options The submission says Victoria could learn from the mental health systems of the Netherlands, and Trieste in Italy

Her former husband, Andrew, took his life three months ago after a six-and-a-half-year battle with mental illness.

"Sadly, he was discharged from hospital due to a lack of available beds at the time, and he ended his struggle,'' Ms Witt said.

"He lost hope…"

This year Ms Witt, a teacher, has already attended a funeral for a former pupil who also took his own life.

Australia, she said, was in a full-blown mental health crisis, with eight people taking their lives every day.

"In previous years, we could probably all say we knew someone who was affected by cancer," Ms Witt said.

"Today I believe most Australians can recount someone affected by mental health and suicide.

"Every day, thousands of Australians are falling through the gaping cracks in our system.

"[It's] like a giant sieve. When someone has a mental illness, everyone is trying to grab parts of the water that are coming through, and trying to stop the gaps."

Andrew Witt took his own life after he was discharged from hospital due to a lack of beds. ( ABC News: Dylan Bruce )

Ms Witt called for an overhaul of how mental illness was treated.

"If someone has cancer in our country … they are brought into centres where they feel that they are connected and there is hope," she said.

But, while visiting her former husband, she had seen a very different situation in facilities for people with acute mental health issues.

"Often the mental health hospitals that people are going into are overcrowded — they are not nice places to be," she said.

"They can reek of urine, you can have people who've got not only mental health issues but also drug issues, homelessness…

"I remember visiting him at one stage where, you know, I felt the place was so depressing.

"There is automatically this sense, often, of no hope."

Ms Witt was speaking at a press conference where the Victorian Government released its submission to the Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System.

Government releases vision for radical overhaul

The submission outlined a proposal to introduce of a "stepped" model of care — a system the Government says would make it easier for people to move between higher or lower-intensity services according to their needs at the time.

"We want to deliver person-centred mental health treatment and care, which targets the needs of the individual at any stage of illness, including before a person becomes unwell," the submission said.

Victorians access Medicare-subsidised mental health-related services at a higher rate than any other state or territory.

In 2017, more than 600 Victorians took their own lives.

"In short we don't actually have a system at the moment, what we have is a system of unconnected services that creates huge gaps that far too many people fall in,'' Mental Health Minister Martin Foley said.

"The stepped-care model is about building better connections between mental health services so people don't fall through the cracks, like too many do right now."

The submission highlighted major gaps in current treatment including early engagement for children and those with a moderate illness.

The paper said services were severely overstretched, which meant police were increasingly becoming first responders to incidents involving people with severe mental illness.

"In 2017/18, Victoria Police attended approximately 43,000 events relating to a psychiatric crisis or suicide attempt or threat, and attended a mental health call-out approximately every 12 minutes,'' the submission said.

This morning, a hospital administrator told the Royal Commission that Victoria's risk-based assessment process for deciding who to admit effectively excluded 70 percent of people who sought help.

Gail Bradley, who manages mental health facilities for Royal Melbourne Hospital, said that to warrant admission patients needed to have a severe mental illness, pose a risk to themselves or others, have a history of hospitalisation and face a significant impact to their usual life.

The result, she said, was that deserving patients were turned away.

"Only about 30 percent of people with severe mental illness are receiving services," Ms Bradley said.

This led to those who could not access appropriate care feeling "disempowered and demoralized", Ms Bradley said.

Ms Bradley said there were simply not enough places to treat those needing help.

"We have a real lack of beds — the rule of thumb is 2.8 beds per 10,000 head of population, at Royal Melbourne we have 0.98 per 10,000," she said.

Submission looks to Italy, Netherlands

The Government's submission also focused on the "missing middle" of services for people with moderate or chronic mental illness.

Mr Foley said an expansion of community-based services could help to serve people who are not yet at crisis point, but whose needs are not being met by low-level care.

In the last Budget, the Government spent $1.5 billion on clinical care, compared to $99 million on community support services.

The submission noted the Italian region of Trieste and the Netherlands as examples of systems which had successfully transitioned from hospitalised care to community-based care.

A 2006 Senate report on Trieste's mental health services noted that the region in Italy's north-east had focused its mental health budget on community-based care.

It led to the creation of drop-in centres which were clinically staffed around the clock and were "abuzz with activity" to promote social interaction as well as treatment.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 1 minute 10 seconds 1 m 10 s Royal commission chair Penny Armytage speaks to the ABC's Mary Gearin

Trieste had reported a drop in the suicide rate, lower demand for acute care and fewer people with mental illness getting caught up in the criminal justice system.

The Victorian Government has suggested expanding community-based services to reduce the reliance on acute inpatient beds and to ensure people with higher needs were accessing appropriate care.

"Community-based care also has the potential to provide interventions that are the least intensive and intrusive for consumers,'' the submission said.