Australian Association of Psychologists reveal steps to ease pressure

A peak psychologists’ organisation has revealed steps the federal government could take to ease pressure on a mental health system in crisis.

A peak organisation is offering the federal government answers to easing the service demands currently being experienced by psychologists.

A peak psychologists’ group is calling on the federal government to enact changes that it says could instantly help more people receive the mental health help they need.

The Australian Association of Psychologists is a not-for-profit group that represents psychologists across the country.

A report, Under Pressure: Australia’s Mental Health Emergency, produced by the McKell Institute and released by the psychologists’ organisation in February, found that since the beginning of the pandemic 88 per cent of psychologists had experienced an increase in service demand.

The organisation’s chief services officer Amanda Curran said if about 7000 provisional psychologists – people who had completed their degrees but still required supervision – were allowed to offer their services under Medicare it would help ease the pressure.

“A large portion of them would be able to be mobilised,” she said.

Australian Association of Psychologists chief services officer Amanda Curran.

Ms Curran also called for incentives for psychologists to move to regional areas, in the same way doctors were incentivised.

The report found that increasing the Medicare rebate for psychologists would help people afford services.

“I think we’d really like to see a concerted effort from the government to work with us to address these issues,” Ms Curran said.

A federal government health department spokesman responded by saying that practitioners eligible to deliver mental health services under Medicare must be fully registered.

“The Psychology Board of Australia is responsible for all matters relating to the registration of psychologists in Australia,” he said.

“Under the board’s registration standards, provisionally registered psychologists must work under the supervision of a fully registered psychologist.”

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 88 per cent of psychologists had experienced an increase in service demand.

Ms Curran said supervision of the provisional psychologists would continue even if they joined Medicare and even in remote locations.

The health department spokesman said the government was supporting provisional psychologists “to contribute to the mental health workforce” through the National Mental Health Pathways to Practice program pilot.

“This will support the safe use of provisional psychologists and address barriers to registration by providing 75 internships for provisional psychologists and 150 free Psychology Board of Australia-endorsed supervisor training sessions,” he said.

He also said the government funded the rural health multidisciplinary training program, which “supported” psychology and other allied health students in supervised clinical training and gave them access to rural placements.

“Across all health disciplines, the program represents a $210 million investment every year to increase rural allied health training to encourage early career health professionals to establish work and personal connections in regional, rural and remote locations of Australia,” he said.