Urgent calls to extend cheap psych scheme

“Cutting patient care early can cause serious harm and lead to loss of life."

“Cutting patient care early can cause serious harm and lead to loss of life."

Psychologists are urgently calling on the federal government to make the subsidised one-on-one sessions offered in the pandemic response permanent, fearing the mental health of hundreds of thousands of Australians will dramatically decline when the initiative is peeled back in December.

The federal government announced in August 2020 that all Australians would be given 20 subsidised sessions with a psychologist - doubled from the existing 10. 

But the sessions are set to expire on December 31, which experts believe will have a detrimental effect on the country’s mental health, as many patients will have to stop their treatment halfway through. 

“If you have a course of antibiotics, you can’t stop it part way through. Or, you couldn’t receive half a cancer treatment,” clinical psychologist Helen Stallman from the University of the Sunshine Coast said. 

“To cut off someone’s mental health plan halfway through will leave them very vulnerable, and unable to resolve the issues they were having and were referred to.” 

Medicare data provided exclusively to The Oz showed in the 2021-22 financial year, 1,023,241 additional sessions were provided by psychologists. This means that if the federal government refuses to continue this program around one million subsidised services could be cut from next year.

“If the federal government proceeds with this cut it will have a devastating impact on patients and psychologists," Australian Psychological Society President Tamara Cavenett told The Oz. “We should be strengthening Medicare, not weakening it. This program has been extraordinarily effective in making treatment more accessible and affordable and we must make it a permanent feature of Medicare.”

Cavenett said 20 sessions were just enough for treatment to be effective and long-lasting, and that cutting those services would force patients to ration their available sessions, rendering treatment less effective.

“Many patients tell me they are worried about the services cliff they’re about to fall off, unsure about what next year looks like," she said. “Cutting patient care early can cause serious harm and lead to loss of life. We are urging the government to show leadership and continue to provide this invaluable community service.”

Health Minister Mark Butler would not commit to extending the subsidised sessions when asked on Tuesday, instead saying he was "committed to working with the mental health sector to ensure people can access services in line with their clinical needs."

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