The Australian Psychological Society (APS) has issued the following statement in response to commentary in the media about Australians not utilising their Mental Health Plans:
“The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report quoted by the media today shows 1.2m Australians are seeing a psychologist through Medicare. Considering hundreds of thousands more are seeing a psychologist privately outside of the Medicare system, that’s a considerable number of people accessing the expert care of our largest mental health workforce,” APS CEO Ms Frances Mirabelli said.
“But, as the AIHW report shows, a large proportion of people are not going through. Although patients dropping out at different stages of the referral process is normal, more work needs to be done to ensure these people do access the care they need.
“Despite recent comments from the doctors, more Australians are visiting psychologists than ever before. We’ve all got work to do to address the gap and the barriers to seeking care. This is why we are focused on working with our members and government to improve accessibility and affordability.
“Doctors play an important role in referrals, but psychological issues are best dealt with by psychologists. We should all be profoundly concerned about our society’s reliance on medication. Psychologists have a key role to play in relieving the human burden and cost of medicalising psychological issues,” Ms Mirabelli said.
Update – Monday 30 September
Following issue of this statement, the APS was advised by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) that the AIHW report this media statement was based on was factually incorrect, as at 27 September.
The AIHW report included incorrect statistics for the number of mental health plans written and utilised in 2018.
In 2018, 1.3 million mental health plans were written – not the original stated 2.1 million – with 1.2 million of these plans utilised. The APS welcomes the news that the gap in uptake of plans is significantly smaller than initially thought.
The APS maintains the position outlined in this statement that our focus is on ensuring increased uptake of mental health treatment with psychologists.
The APS thanks the AIHW for the correction.
For more information, or to arrange an interview call the APS Media team on 03 8662 3358 / 0435 896 444, or email. Find the APS Media team on Twitter: @AustPsych
The APS is the largest professional organisation for psychologists in Australia, representing more than 27,000 members. The APS is committed to advancing psychology as a discipline and profession. It spreads the message that psychologists make a difference to people’s lives, through improving psychological knowledge and community wellbeing.