New partnerships were established for the purposes of developing and delivering professional opportunities for members in 2020.
Professional Advisory Service
The Professional Advisory Service responded to over 8500 member queries with common queries relating to Medicare, COVID-19 requirements, legal issues and confidentiality.
Additional staff were brought in during the peak of the COVID-19 changes, who responded to dozens of calls and emails a day. Members required clarity on the introduction of telehealth services and bulk billing, economic stimulus packages from Government, CPD requirements, face masks, and a host of other pandemic-related issues. This support was essential to ensure our members could continue to practice with confidence.
Disaster Response Network
APS members who volunteered within the Disaster Response Network (DRN) supported the Australian Red Cross through the 2019/2020 bushfires. Deployments were made to fire impacted regions including Mallacoota, Batemans Bay and Ulladulla and members undertook wellbeing checks with over 50 Red Cross workers. In addition, the DRN conducted wellbeing checks for those Australian Red Cross workers working with COVID-19 positive Australians and those in required quarantine.
Tackle Your Feelings program
In December 2019, the APS was proud to announce its official partnership with the AFL Players’ and Coaches’ Associations for the delivery of Tackle Your Feelings – a national mental health training program for local footy clubs and coaches. The core aim of the program is to roll out specialised face-to-face and online mental health training to coaches and committee members at community footy clubs around the country, both in metropolitan and regional/rural areas.
In 2020, the aim is to deliver the program to more than 1500 coaches from 200 community clubs across Victoria, Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland. The APS put the call out to APS psychologists who met a range of criteria, including having experience working in mental health, and a passion for an understanding of community sport, in particular, AFL. Close to 200 applications were reviewed and selected in January and February by the Tackle Your Feelings program administrators, and the training with APS psychologists began at the end of February 2020. A large component of the community training was moved online due to COVID-19, which proved to be very successful, despite the challenges.
Enhancements to Find a Psychologist
Thousands of APS members benefit from having a listing on Find a Psychologist, Australia’s leading online psychologist directory. In 2020, with Australia facing enormous challenges from the bushfire and COVID-19 crises, the Federal Government agreed to provide funding to the APS to further enhance the Find a Psychologist directory. The aim is to make it easier for clients to link up with a psychologist, thus helping to meet the incredibly high demand for mental health services.
The result included improvements to the functionality of the site and the development of PsychEngage, a new free feature for premium listing holders. It allows clients to send appointment requests to psychologists who have opted in to this feature, with the intention of removing the barrier of a client having to call multiple psychologists when arranging an appointment. This is managed through a dedicated website portal and a smartphone app, used by the psychologists to manage their bookings.