APS submission to the Commonwealth Government COVID-19 Response Inquiry

The Australian Psychological Society (APS) welcomed the opportunity to provide a submission to the Commonwealth Government COVID-19 Response Inquiry. The APS response identified key issues, challenges and innovations in addressing the increased demand for mental health services during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also identified learnings and opportunities for the government to enhance its ability to anticipate, adapt and respond to community mental health needs in future pandemics and national emergencies, including:

• Growing a sufficient psychology workforce using various levers, for example, more support for supervision and redesigned higher education pathways,
• Ensuring appropriate mental health support policy settings that improve access to psychologists, for example, lowering gap fees and replicating GP regional incentives for psychologists, and
• Leveraging the expertise of the APS and psychologists in the establishment and operation of the Australian Centre for Diseases Control (CDC), including identifying opportunities to adapt the already established disaster-response systems and the success of the APS Disaster Response Network (DRN) to support frontline workers, their families and communities.

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