This article is featured in The Daily Telegraph and is republished with permission.
Psychologists warn regional services could be cut in the NT as working in rural and remote areas becomes more unrealistic.
It follows after the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has announced they will be reducing fees for psychologists in Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory, and Tasmania.
From July 1, the NDIA will introduce a national price limit of $232.99 per hour for psychology supports.
This will result in a net reduction of $11.23 per hour for psychologists in the NT.
Travel subsidies for allied health professionals will also be cut in half.
Senior clinical psychologist professor and head of Discipline in Psychology at CDU, Tinashe Dune said the move “undermines” the role of Allied Health professionals.
She said psychologist fees for NDIS are already lower than colleagues working in a private practice and with the cost of living going up, carrying out the job in harder to reach areas becomes even harder.
“Essentially what this means is that people will disengage from marginalised populations,” she said.
“As a result, the gap between care will just become bigger.”
Further down the line, she said less people will want to fill these much needed regional jobs as they become less attractive.
The reduction of travel fees means some professionals might stop travelling to certain areas or ask the family to cover the travel costs to keep services viable.
“That’s literally taking food out of people’s mouths and that’s hard to reconcile,” she said. “Why is it that we have to make that decision as therapists?”
For people who have multiple diagnoses or disabilities, Dr Dune said this will just add more of a burden on carers who already suffer from extreme burnout.
“What are we actually achieving for carers, families and individuals with disability and for allied health providers?” she asked.
“It’s just pushing the financial pressure elsewhere.
“You’re pushing it onto clinicians and to their clients, and that’s going to create more of a burden of disease because people are going to be more unwell.”
‘This will be felt in rural and remote communities’
Dr Sara Quinn, president of the Australian Psychological Society (APS), said the move makes the work of psychologists even more “unsustainable and economically unviable”.
“We are incredibly alarmed by the changes recommended in this year’s annual pricing review,” she said.
“They’re measures that fail to reflect participant need and all the economic realities of delivering high quality supports.
“This will ultimately limit access to the vital, therapeutic services.”
Dr Quinn called for transparency from NDIS and government to actively work with allied health professionals to look at measures to ensure sustainability rather than cost minimisation.
She said the changes will be “particularly felt” in rural and remote communities where some psychologists might need to “rethink” whether they can provide services.
“These suggested changes will only then add additional pressure to a system that’s already failing to meet the needs of participants,” she said.
Australian Association of Psychologists said they were calling for the NDIA to immediately reverse the planned price reductions.
Executive director, Tegan Carrison, said: “The NDIA report clearly shows that the current national psychology price limit of $229.99 already sits well below the prevailing market rates.
“Rather than lifting underpriced jurisdictions up, the NDIA has chosen to drag them down. “This will disproportionately impact rural, remote, and under-served communities where psychologist shortages are already chronic.”