Rural and remote services

People living in regional, rural and remote areas of Australia experience poorer access to health services than their metropolitan counterparts.

The APS is a powerful advocate for changes to the health system to improve access to psychological services for people in rural and remote areas.  

Advocacy efforts include:

• being an active member of the National Rural Health Alliance (NRHA) and contributing to NRHA position statements and representations to government, including meetings with parliamentarians
• communicating with government and policy makers about improving access to psychological services for people in rural and remote areas, including successfully advocating for rural and remote Australians to be able to access the Better Access Medicare initiative using video consultations (commencing on 1 November 2017).

Pre-Budget submissions to the Federal Government

The APS has also advocated to the Government by submitting Pre-Federal budget submissions to improve access to psychological services in regional, rural and remote Australia.