Following APS advocacy throughout 2022, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) has announced that from 1 November 2022, psychologists and other allied health mental health providers can once again deliver initial consultations via telehealth.
This reverses DVA’s position for most of 2022 which required initial allied mental health consultations to be held in person unless an exemption had been granted by DVA. The change was confirmed at a DVA forum with peak health organisations held at the end of November which was attended by the APS.
The APS welcomes this change which follows from our continued advocacy for the DVA to remove the in-person initial session requirement. We raised our concerns directly with DVA earlier in the year, pointing out that requiring an initial in-person consultation was clinically unnecessary, exacerbated existing challenges in accessing timely mental health care and created additional administrative burdens for psychologists. We raised with the DVA that clients in regional and remote areas were particularly disadvantaged, as were those for whom an in-person consultation may be physically or psychologically inappropriate.
Please note that the DVA requires that initial telehealth consultations be delivered by videoconference “where the patient and provider have visibility of each other”, not by telephone. Group therapy also cannot be delivered by telehealth.
DVA will be conducting a broader review its allied health telehealth arrangements in 2023 but confirmed to the APS that it is unlikely for this arrangement to be revised as part of the review. The APS will continue to advocate for the important role of psychologists in supporting veterans and their families in this review.
For more information and for general DVA telehealth requirements, please see: https://www.dva.gov.au/providers/health-programs-and-services-our-clients/permanent-telehealth-information-health-care