This week AAPi is back in Canberra, working hard to represent our members and the clients and communities they serve. We have met with the Department of Health and Aging, key stakeholders and all sides of politics. Advocacy is at the heart of what we do. Our core policy objectives are around access and equity. What we are fighting for:
- Provide access to additional subsidised psychological therapy sessions under Medicare for those with more complex mental health needs. An arbitrary cap of 10 sessions a year is insufficient and not evidence based.
- Increase the Medicare rebate for all psychologists to $150. This would decrease out-of-pocket expenses and enable more bulk billing, ensuring mental health services are more accessible.
- We need more support to expand services to rural and regional Australia. Expanding incentives, higher rebates and programs currently only available to GPs is a crucial ask from AAPi.
- Medicare eligibility expanded to include provisional psychologists. This will improve access and timeliness of services while supporting the future of our profession and the workplaces that employ them.
- We need to improve career pathways for psychology students. Too many students are missing out on becoming psychologists due to barriers to entry. AAPi is working to reinstate the 4+2 internship program and plans to provide more university places and increase the diversity of the course types available.
Other pivotal activities this week included advocacy for ADHD and autism. Too many individuals and families suffer due to unnecessary and non-evidence-based limitations on single-clinician diagnoses. This is one of the tragic consequences of the arbitrary two-tier system. Endorsement is not an appropriate metric to decide who can provide Lead Practitioner Diagnostic Evaluation, nor does it guarantee clinicians are qualified or appropriate to do this assessment. Contemporary training in autism and ADHD assessment and diagnosis is primarily conducted outside of the formal education of psychologists. Many psychologists working in this area are highly experienced and skilled but do not have an endorsement. Continuing to restrict diagnostic guidelines for ADHD and autism to a small group of endorsed psychologists will continue to have negative implications for early intervention and access to supports for clients, not to mention the impacts on highly qualified and experienced psychologists. This must end, and AAPi is unwavering in our commitment and actions to achieve this.