With rising rates of mental illness post-pandemic, more than 30% of Australian psychologists are forced to turn away new patients.
Australia’s “catastrophic” psychologist shortage could be resolved if it weren’t for huge barriers preventing capable and eager students from attaining their degrees and filling critical holes in the workforce, experts say.
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, Australian Psychological Society president Tamara Cavenett told The Oz.
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.
Clinical psychologists are required to have achieved an undergraduate degree, an Honours degree and a Masters degree in order to practice in Australia.
“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.”
Monash University clinical psychology professor Gemma Sharp agreed, saying: “Generally master degrees accept 10-20 students, which is not very many when you consider the thousands of students who study psychology in their first year of university.”
“Obviously the pandemic has put a huge strain on the workforce,” she continued. “We’ve always had the problem that we don’t have enough psychologists, but it’s a much bigger problem now.”
The University of Adelaide, a leading Australian psychology university, accepted only 5 Masters students a few years ago from hundreds of applications, Dr Sharp added.
The lack of available psychologists comes as the mental health of young people continues to deteriorate.
Nearly 40% of Australians aged 16-24 have a mental disorder, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
The Australian Psychological Society is calling on the federal government to up the funding to universities for psychology degrees, to open up new spots for potential students.
Postgraduate psychology training is funded at a lower band compared to other health professions, with the federal government paying $13,369 per student.
Cavenett told The Oz funding for psychology training should be equal to General Practice, Medical Studies, Agriculture, and Veterinary Science training, at $27,243 per student.
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.”