Recently, I met with my local Federal Member of Parliament to discuss what I think is indicative of inequitable access to the current Mental Health system. I am a psychologist in solo private practice, with too many balls in the air (of course). I don’t ’put myself out there’, and prefer to be one of the quiet observers who sit up the back. This was a big step outside my comfort zone.
My intention was to bring his attention to an 11 year old client (with that client’s permission), who was diagnosed with OCD in February 2023. I soon realised that effective treatment would take considerably more than the 10 sessions available to us through a Mental Health Care Plan, and spoke to her parents about a referral to CAMHS. We also discussed the option of continuing therapy privately which they agreed to. After fortnightly sessions during term time in 2023, we began tapering off due to the substantial improvements we were seeing in symptoms. In May 2024 the family received a call from CAMHS to say that they had a place for her. I was so upset by the time it had taken for her to be eligible for a treatment place, knowing that without her parents’ ability and willingness to pay for sessions privately her symptoms would have continued to escalate. This would have made it harder (more costly) to treat, and over time would likely have resulted in significant disruption to her ability to attend school, maintain employment as an adult and generally function well. I wanted to highlight the injustice of this situation, as our current system sentences those without financial capacity to a lifetime of mental health issues when we can often relatively easily intervene before patterns become entrenched.
My MP was willing to hear my concerns, and also asked a lot of other questions about things like why there are not enough psychologists (I said not enough training places, the loss of the 4+2 pathway, placement poverty and the relatively low income most of us earn given the amount of training that’s required), how we can support psychologists better (I said that AAPi is quite brilliant, but might have missed an opportunity to mention things like increasing rebates and making Ahpra nicer). Sadly, he did not think we are likely to see an increase in the number of sessions available via a MHCP, but did say he’d talk to ‘Mark’ about my concerns.
All in all, I think it was worth the time and stress that went into organising and thinking about the meeting. Having a concrete example to refer to was really useful, and I surprised myself at how easily the words came in the moment. I can get myself a bit tongue tied when I’m nervous! I chose this example because it’s a success story, but also highlights the gaps between those that can afford therapy and those who can’t. I would encourage ALL psychologists to consider meeting with their local MP to discuss examples of the real life impact of decisions made by the government in this space.
About Anna Johnson
Anna has been a psychologist for 18 years, and has been in private practice in the north eastern suburbs of Melbourne for nearly 8 years. She is sometimes successful at juggling work, family life with 3 kids and a dog, and being an introvert. Her preferred strategies for self-care include reading (fiction), knitting (mostly socks), running (very slowly) and cooking when she can wrestle the kitchen away from the children.