The Help Us Help More Campaign was launched in February 2023 at Parliament House by the Australian Association of Psychologists Inc (AAPi).
Australia has experienced significant challenges in recent years, including COVID and natural disasters, meaning the nation's mental health is at risk more than ever before.
As qualified professionals, we want to help, we can help, and YOU can Help Us Help More.
We aim to involve our members, their clients, the community and key stakeholders in mental health to support the campaign, and let the federal government know that substantial funding and operational changes to mental health care delivery are required if we are going to provide quality care for Australians living with mental ill health.
Our aim is simple - to ensure psychologists can deliver the best possible care and that vulnerable Australians have access to quality mental health care, whenever and wherever they need it.
The campaign has three main objectives:
- Reverse cuts to Medicare-subsidised psychology sessions to support Australians living with mental ill-health and struggling to access the services they need.
- Allow provisional psychologists to provide services under Medicare to create a larger pool of qualified mental health professionals that the community can affordably access.
- End the two-tier Medicare rebate system for psychologists and implement a single Medicare rebate of $150 per client per session.