‘Heartbreaking’: Closure hits crucial sector
There are fears this latest closure could mean the end of this industry in Australia.
Careers
Don't miss out on the headlines from Careers. Followed categories will be added to My News.
As a mental health crisis rages in Australia, the last remaining community psychology course in the country has been shut down with students describing the move as “really heartbreaking”.
There are now no more courses in community psychology left in Australia, after the masters degree at Victoria University was permanently closed.
Heather Lewis is one of the last students who is completing the course – having moved from Queensland to Melbourne to pursue her dream of becoming a community psychologist.
“Its been a tumultuous time with the course closure. It’s been really heartbreaking. I uprooted my life to come down and have this opportunity to learn this very unique speciality,” she told news.com.au.
“It was the only one in the country so for it disappear it’s heartbreaking, not only for the students but for community psychologists. We are a small bunch and not having that masters program makes it harder.
“We are still unsure about keeping that speciality alive and it’s not the first speciality to come under the knife when it comes to prioritising clinical psychology over others.”
The 36-year-old said community psychology would allow her to work at the grassroots level particularly in regional and rural areas, which are desperately crying out for these type of services.
She added community psychologists take a holistic view of care and focus on areas such as policy, social justice and advocacy including working with domestic violence victims, refugees and asylum seekers.
“With the world getting as scary as it is and so uncertain the need for community psychology is growing so the fact the course is no more is really disheartening – it doesn’t make sense to me,” she said.
“The course closure felt unnecessary as we did have a full course. We never got a full understanding about why the board chose to do that we assume it was financially … but there wasn’t a consultation process with students or staff that I’m aware of and we were all full fee paying students.
“Its been really heartbreaking and stressful and the uncertainty in terms of what it might means in terms of endorsement and the future of community psychology in Australia.”
A Victoria University (VU) spokesperson said the institution regularly re-evaluates courses to scrutinise costs and viability.
“Community Psychology was a resource intensive course with high overheads and low student numbers, so in late 2023, VU decided to withdraw the offering,” they said.
“VU recognised the valuable knowledge and expertise contained within community psychology and looked at ways to integrate it with other course offerings.
“The 15 impacted students were given the choice to continue community psychology to completion, or transfer to VU’s clinical psychology program. All the students have been supported to conclude their studies.
“VU does not make these decisions lightly; however, they must be made to ensure the future success of our institution and most importantly, our students.”
It comes at a time that the Medicare rebate system for psychologists is under scrutiny with calls for changes to make it more accessible to Australians.
The Australian Association of Psychologists wants a change to the “two tier” Medicare billing for psychologists.
The two-tier system suggests clinical psychologists, which make up 30 per cent of the profession, should attract a higher level of Medicare funding than the remaining 70 per cent who are registered psychologists or hold endorsement in another area of practice, according to the Association.
Other areas include counselling psychology, education and development psychology or forensic psychology.
Clients of registered psychologists are rebated $96 for a 50-minute session, while clients of clinical psychologists are offered a $137 rebate – over $40 more for the same kind of service, it found.
Forcing two thirds of psychologists to offer lower rebates leaves a huge gap in services for the most vulnerable Australians in this time of great need, the Association argued.
The closure of the last community psychology course was also a significant loss for psychology and communities, added Australian Association of Psychologists executive director Tegan Carrison said.
“Community psychologists play a crucial role in addressing systemic issues and promoting mental health at a community level,” she said.
“This decision undermines our efforts to build resilient and thriving communities. This is a time we need more community psychologists, not less.”
“Community psychologists work with many under served and marginalised groups and community psychology courses provide graduates with the skills to address some of our most pressing community issues.”
sarah.sharples@news.com.au
Originally published as ‘Heartbreaking’: Closure hits crucial sector
‘Any takers?’: Aussie job ad mocked
Crowdstrike, the company behind the global IT outage, was looking for a public relations director at its North Sydney office.
New crisis to hit shoppers with higher prices
There’s a growing crisis in Australia’s trucking industry, and shoppers everywhere will be the losers.