The Albanese administration has been criticized for cutting the number of subsidised therapy sessions for mental health sufferers by half.
The number of free psychologist or allied mental health appointments available under the Better Access programme will be decreased from 20 to 10 in the coming weeks, according to Health Minister Mark Butler.
Prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, Australians could claim 10 psychologist appointments under Medicare. In August 2020, Better Access temporarily extended this quota to 20 sessions.
However, the health minister said that the sessions had been cancelled after a University of Melbourne study indicated that they were not being accessible evenly.
He said that patients from lower socioeconomic and rural regions, as well as those in nursing homes, were losing out on sessions as compared to other patients.
‘The evaluation I am publishing today considered the impact of those additional 10 sessions and found they drove a very big increase in the number of services in this sector generally,’ Mr Butler said on Monday.
‘But it found that those additional 10 aggravated existing wait lists and aggravated barriers to access, particularly by the groups I’ve mentioned (people in rural and low socio-economic areas).’
‘The evaluation found that all of the additional services went to existing patients and that the number of new patients who were able to get into the system and get access to psychology services actually declined by seven per cent.’
However, the ABC said that an assessment of the programme discovered that individuals with mental health difficulties need more than ten sessions.
‘The additional 10 sessions should continue to be made available and should be targeted towards those with complex mental health needs,’ the review read.
It suggested that if the programme provides 20 sessions, a patient evaluation might be undertaken after 10 sessions.
The Australian Psychological Society has condemned the government’s plan to reduce services for Australians in need.
Dr Catriona Davis-McCabe, President of the APS, said, ‘The government commissioned Better Access evaluation released today found workforce shortages and location as key barriers to patient care which makes the axing of the additional sessions program harder to understand.’
‘This programme safely gave many people telehealth or in-person psychological care for the first time in their lives, yet many patients will now have to ration or stop treatment altogether.
‘Just as people shouldn’t be asked to ration vital medicines like insulin, they shouldn’t have to ration mental health care,’ she added.
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