Long wait lists and lack of staff is an ongoing problem for mental health services in the Whitsundays, according to an article in The Chronicle, which detailed the issues around retention of professionals in this region.
AAPi members Christine Franklin and Corey Lane were both quoted in the article.
Mr Lane said he had tried to alert the federal Minister to the mental health crisis in the Whitsundays last year, in a letter that outlined the need to provide incentives directed at mental health practitioners, as well as re-establish the 20 sessions that Australians were offered during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“In my letter I outlined all of their approaches and said, why this doesn’t work and doesn’t apply to our circumstances,” he said referring to the average salary for psychologists being higher in cities than in rural areas, giving practitioners zero reason to move to the regions. “They just sent back this cookie cutter type email, not addressing any of my issues.
“It was really disappointing.”
Ms Franklin said she had a wait list of six weeks.
“This is tough on people who have made a decision to seek psychological help because, very often by that stage, a person will be at their lowest point,” she said.
Ms Franklin said people with acute mental health conditions would often be given the treatment they need by hospital staff, but that the difficulty was to provide to the majority of people “at risk” of mental health problems.
“We know that early intervention in mental health is effective and that the best outcomes for individuals are gained by preventing them getting really unwell in the first place,” she said.
Read the full article.
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