AAPi President Sahra O'Doherty spoke to ABC Radio today in response to the Federal Budget and AAPi's concerns about the roll out of the 61 “free” Medicare Mental Health Clinics.
"We're concerned that it's going to be a lot of investment into infrastructure and building and establishing these new centres, but it doesn't actually solve the workforce shortages of psychologists," she said.
"We know that the majority of psychologists live and work in the metro city areas, and there isn't very much attraction or pull or incentive for psychologists to move to or stay in the regional locations. And so we're very concerned about who is actually going to be staffing these mental health centres in the regional areas, considering the massive workforce shortages that psychologists and also psychiatrists are undergoing at the moment.
Sahra spoke about the importance of individualised care for each person who seeks mental health support and the calls to raise the Medicare rebate to $150 for the clients of all psychologists, which would allow more psychologists to bulk bill.
Listen to the full interview here.
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