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Today's Sydney Morning Herald contains comments from three leading psychology bodies, including AAPi, about the impact of the cuts to the Medicare psychology sessions, six months after they were halved.
AAPi Executive Director Tegan Carrison said she was often asked by members what services they could recommend to clients who need additional sessions. “Unfortunately options outside of Medicare are few and far between,” she said.
Australian Clinical Psychology Association Caroline Hunt said: “We have been waiting since the end of 2022 for advice from government on care options for these patients with more complex conditions and we are now nearing a crisis point."
Australian Psychological Society president Catriona Davis-McCabe said: "It typically takes patients longer than 10 hours of treatment for common issues like major depression or the loss of a loved one, and the government needs to follow the evidence or risk falling further behind international standards.”
Read the full article here.
Today, AAPi has sent a letter to Health Minister Mark Butler, asking for the Federal Government to take immediate action to improve mental health services in Australia, and calling for it to:
- Increase the number of rebated psychologist sessions from 10 to 20
- Raise the rebate for the clients of all psychologists
- Allow provisional psychologists to provide Medicare services
- End the two-tier system.