ABC news has featured AAPi's call to the Federal Government for the number of rebated perinatal mental health sessions to be increased to 40 per year; and the impact of the session cuts on women seeking help for perinatal issues.
AAPi member Alysha-leigh Fameli said "investing in 40 sessions for perinatal women would actually save huge amounts of money down the track, not just for the women but for the infants, because we do know that perinatal mental health conditions are linked to infant developmental outcomes."
Ms Fameli said Federal Government measures like the hotlines and perinatal mental health centres were welcome but insufficient in addressing the problem.
The "overarching issue...is an impossibly low bulk-billing rebate.
"There are more registered psychologists in Australia than clinical psychologists, so for that reason, if we were to abolish that two-tier system and raise that rebate, we would find that practices would have more psychologists willing to work for them, as well as lower or no out-of-pocket costs [for patients]," she said.
Read the full story here.