'Disappointing': Dismissing solutions in a psych crisis

'Offering students scholarships could be the difference between whether someone could access a psychologist or not.'

'Offering students scholarships could be the difference between whether someone could access a psychologist or not.'

Urgent calls for more psychology student scholarships have been dismissed by the federal government amid critical staff shortages and a "shadow pandemic".

The Australian Psychological Society is calling on the health department to offer Masters psychology students free or subsidised tuition to get more students in, and more psychologists trained up - similar to Victoria’s Premier Dan Andrews offering $16,500 scholarships to nursing students to fill critical gaps in the health system. 

But federal health minister Mark Butler did not commit to offering additional scholarships, and instead blamed the “nine years of inaction” from the Morrison government that led to the “acute workforce issues” in the health space.

“Over the next two months I will continue to meet with frontline health care workers, including students and those who have recently left their positions, to understand their issues and what governments can do better,” Butler told The Oz.  

A “Health Workforce Taskforce” has been established to provide advice and recommendations to Health Ministers on short and medium term action to address challenges, he added.

Butler’s comments come as experts blame Australia’s “catastrophic” psychologist shortage on huge barriers preventing capable and eager students from attaining their degrees and entering the workforce.

APS President Tamara Cavenett said it was "disappointing" that the federal government wasn't willing to extend scholarships to psychology students to make their education more affordable.

“Our mental health is just as important as our physical health, but isn’t always treated that way,” APS President Tamara Cavenett said. “Physical health is often where we put the money - be it rural incentives, bulk billing incentives. It happens in medicine and nursing but needs to be extended to psychology as well.” 

“Offering scholarships could be the difference between whether someone could access a psychologist or not.”  

Before the pandemic, just 1% of psychologists were unable to accept new patients. Now, with rising rates of mental illness and the "shadow pandemic" causing more people than ever to seek professional help, more than 30% of Australian psychologists are forced to turn away new patients.

The shortage can be put down to just a "handful" of Masters degree positions being offered to "thousands" of keen applicants, Cavenett said. She said every year universities turn away enthusiastic students from their Masters (their final year of training) who could have made "fantastic" psychologists, but are unable to be accepted due to a lack of available places.

“There's one Victorian university that had 700 applicants for 21 Masters positions,” she said. “I've got university professors who tell me they've got a hair's breadth choice between two students. Both of them would make amazing psychologists, both of them have already done five years training, and they literally would both be amazing. But they have to turn one of them away.”

Edith Cowan University psychology lecturer Shane Rogers said a Masters of Psychology was an “incredibly intensive” degree, which required “more staff per student” than other courses.

“They’re not as profitable as some of the other degrees,” he said. “The universities sometimes aren’t as keen to pump money into them because they don’t make as much money. That's why they might need more funding from the government instead.”