Whitsunday psychologist Christine Franklin supports changes to Medicare rebate

Long waiting lists and out-of-pocket expenses are some of the issues facing Whitsunday residents seeking help with their mental health, and those in the sector say that needs to change.

A Whitsunday psychologist is calling for more incentives to attract mental health care professionals to the region, with two recent retirements expected to leave a significant gap in services.

Justine McAllister from Bowen and Janice Armstrong from Cannon Valley both retired in November after long careers in private practice.

Registered psychologist Christine Franklin, from Cannonvale, said the women’s departure was not only sad for the coastal communities but would leave a “tremendous hole” in terms of meeting the area’s future mental health needs.

Ms Franklin is a member of the Australian Association of Psychologists, AAPi, and has worked in Cannonvale for the past nine years.

She said demand for appointments was increasing, and not just because of the far-reaching impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“One thing that’s increased it is that where somebody might once have spoken to a GP [about mental health issues], GPs are so busy they don’t have the time so they’re referring people on to psych services,” Ms Franklin said.

“Another thing is probably just more talk in the community about mental health – there’s been a lot of work put into reducing the stigma around accessing mental health care and lots of people that wouldn’t have gone to talk to someone now might.”

Ms McAllister and Ms Armstrong’s retirements leave the region with six psychologists in the Cannonvale/Airlie Beach area, two in Bowen, and none in Proserpine.

None offer a bulk-billed service and most have waiting lists two to three months long.

Ms Franklin said such barriers to access were not only disheartening but potentially further damaging to people experiencing poor mental health.

“All the research tells us early intervention is the best thing we can do,” she said.

“For a person who’s made the decision to speak to someone, that’s a big decision and it might have taken them a long time to get to that point.

“To then be told you’re going to have to wait two to three months – that’s a really difficult piece of information for a lot of people, and there’s a really good chance their mental health is going to deteriorate.”

Ms Franklin said it could also add to the strain on hospitals.

“If it gets to the point where someone’s actively suicidal or psychotic, not understanding reality, people have to go through the hospital,” Ms Franklin said.

“What we know about mental health is if we intervene early we can prevent people coming to hospital with those acute presentations, we can prevent those psychotic or suicidal experiences which in themselves can be quite traumatising.”

As well as continuing the telehealth services introduced during the pandemic, and increasing government funding for non-acute mental health services, Ms Franklin said changing the Medicare rebate system would improve the outlook for the Whitsundays.

Currently, clients of registered psychologists are rebated at $88 for a standard 50-minute session, while those of clinical psychologists are rebated at $129 – over $40 more for the same session.

AAPi says the “inequity” of the two-tier system for psychologists makes it challenging for registered psychologists to run a viable practice, and is campaigning to raise the client rebate for all psychology services across the board to $150.

Ms Franklin said there was no quick fix for a “very political issue”, which started with difficulties attracting people to study psychology in the first place because of changes to the training model.

She believed increasing the rebate would go a long way to reducing the financial barriers in the short term.

“If the rebate increased, a lot of rural and regional psychologists could bulk bill and there would be no out-of-pocket expense – clients would be able to access services without having to pay, and being able to run a viable business would attract more psychologists to those areas,” she said.