Maria Cassar disqualified from treating patients for two years, VCAT rules
A Melbourne psychologist who gave a patient meth and tried to convince another to take a drug test in her place has pleaded to get her licence back.
South East
Don't miss out on the headlines from South East . Followed categories will be added to My News.
A Melbourne psychologist has been exposed for supplying patients with meth and other drugs and treating a child of her close friend among other shocking behaviour, a tribunal has heard.
Maria Cassar, a psychologist from Melbourne’s southeast, fronted VCAT on May 16 after it was discovered she had been supplying patients with Valium and Xanax where they didn’t have prescriptions, supplying methamphetamines, holding therapy sessions from her own home, sometimes in her bedroom and more.
The Psychology Board of Australia brought Cassar before the tribunal after receiving multiple complaints regarding her conduct.
An investigation revealed Cassar breached the code of conduct for health practitioners on multiple occasions across years of her career.
In February 2018, Cassar was treating a patient with a significant history of drug use, including crystal meth and amphetamines.
The tribunal heard she provided the patient with Xanax without a prescription, in full knowledge of the patient’s prior addiction to the drug.
Cassar also gave the same patient Valium tablets in 2018, again without prescription.
The tribunal heard she had also supplied the patient with crystal meth and built a personal relationship with them.
During the investigation in 2019, the Australia Health Practitioner Regulation Agency asked Cassar for a hair, urine and blood sample.
The board was notified Cassar asked a patient to take the tests for her, offering to organise a fake ID and pay the patient to commit the fraud.
In March 2019, Cassar finally agreed to undertaking a hair test.
The tribunal heard results indicated frequent use of methamphetamines during the three month period prior to the test.
The tribunal heard Cassar invited multiple patients to see her band play outside of her practice and had undertaken psychological sessions with patients at her home, both in her loungeroom and bedroom on different occasions with four independent patients.
It was also revealed Cassar borrowed money from two patients on 15 occasions, even offering to sell a patient her car.
Cassar had failed to take accurate medical records of six patients between February 2011 and March 2019.
The tribunal also heard she had treated the daughter of her friend for more than a year, calling this a “serious and prolonged violation of proper professional boundaries”.
The board said Cassar “allowed her personal and professional life to become hopelessly intertwined” and that she “lacked boundaries”.
In the hearing, Cassar said she had been disqualified from practice since 2019, and had not worked for five years.
While she said she “regretted supplying drugs to a patient and borrowing money from them”, she “wasn’t making good decisions at the time”.
Cassar felt she had been punished long enough for her misconduct, pleading for her licence to be reinstated.
The board disagreed, submitting she had “completely let go of her professional moorings and routinely engaged in conduct which psychologists should instinctively avoid.”
Cassar told the tribunal she had “felt burnt out after 20 years of working under pressure with people suffering trauma, but that she was a changed person”.
The tribunal agreed with the board, saying “she lacks insight, particularly in relation to her methamphetamine use and in relation to her work-style.”
Cassar was disqualified for a further two-year period and received a formal reprimand on her official record, with a message of denunciation for her conduct as a psych.
