The Australian Psychological Society (APS) welcomed the opportunity to contribute to the Productivity Commission’s Final Review of the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement. In our submission, we emphasise the urgent need for strategic, evidence-based reforms to improve access to timely, person-centred mental health care and to strengthen the role of the psychology workforce across all settings. Our response focuses on building a more coherent and sustainable mental health system, informed by lived experience and grounded in prevention, early intervention and equitable access.
Our key recommendations include:
- Supporting ten costed, high-impact reform initiatives from the APS 2025–26 Pre-Budget Submission.
- Establishing clear national targets to grow and fully utilise the psychology workforce.
- Investing in psychologists’ roles in prevention and early intervention across diverse settings.
- Embedding a 1:500 school psychologist-to-student ratio nationwide.
- Reforming public sector structures to allow psychologists to work to their full scope of practice.