AAPi Director Carly Dober spoke with 2SM news and the 6PR drive program in Perth about new data from the ABS which showed that one in five people delayed seeing or did not go to a health professional for their mental health due to cost.
"Decades of research has shown time and time again that financial strain or financial distress is a trigger and also exacerbates mental health conditions and sometimes suicidal ideation. So the stats today paint a really scary picture of where things might go because the economic conditions aren't certainly going to improve anytime soon," Carly said.
"We know that there's also a workforce shortage of psychologists in Australia, but that combined with the significant out of pocket fee for the really inadequate Medicare rebates for psychology means that many people are just giving up or not going."
Carly spoke about the rebates and called for the 8,000 provisional psychologists to be able to provide a Medicare rebate to their clients to ease the workforce shortage.
Listen to the full 6PR interview here.