Q&A (ABC): Pulling the wool over Australia's eyes with mental health funding

Cuts to psychologists medicare:

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The recent federal government's announcement that funding for mental health has been 'increased' hides cutbacks they have made in other areas. While they have increased funding for schizophrenia and psychosis they have reduced funding for depression/anxiety. In particular, they have made substantial cuts to Medicare funding for psychologists, which allowed patients to access 12 sessions of counselling (18 sessions under exceptional circumstances). Depression and anxiety (OCD, PTSD, Panic Disorder, Social Phobia etc) are serious mental disorder that are disabling and heighten the risk of suicide. The treatment of choice for these conditions is cognitive behaviour therapy (sometimes combined with medication) delivered by a psychologist or a mental health worker. The recent budget announcement will restrict the community's access to these effective treatments. The government will defend its cutbacks because they will claim that they are funding counselling through an alternative initiative called ATAPS. This new funding is welcomed. ATAPS, however, only services a small number of socially disadvantaged groups. The majority of Australians will still continue seeing psychologists via the Medicare system. With the new proposal, all patients referred through Medicare will have access to fewer treatment sessions (i.e., most treatment episodes will be limited to 6 sessions; 10 sessions under exceptional circumstances). To put this into perspective, it might take 4 -- 5 weekly sessions to stabilize a suicidal patient, keeping them out of an expensive psychiatric hospital ward. After a severely depressed person is stabilized, 10 -- 20 sessions of therapy may be required to treat their depression. It looks like we are going back to the bad old days when only biomedical treatments for mental illness were funded, even in situations where scientific evidence is lacking. Australia - you have had the wool pulled over your eyes in relation to mental health funding. Chris Ludlow - Psychologist

APS Media Release

http://www.psychology.org.au/news/media_releases/7june2011

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• australia
• politics
• mental
• health

[Ragnarok187]

The reason they wanna cut from psychology is to give more to psychiatry, and especially Patrick McGorry's 'drug em all' approach.

If they wanna cut the number of sessions, make therapy more effective. Drugs are less effective btw.

[brayofaheart]

"I'd like to meet the psychologist who can help and support a depressed person in 10 sessions a year." Pinkelstien - you are so right! I've needed every one of the 12 free sessions that I was granted this year, and more. Slightly worried for 2012...