APS welcomes Telehealth and Better Access certainty for millions of Australians

Australian Psychological Society

The Australian Psychological Society welcomes the federal government for its $106 million investment to make Telehealth services permanently available to millions of Australians announced this morning along with $58.8 million in additional funding for the Better Access scheme.

With Telehealth previously set to end on 31 December 2021, APS would like to thank the government for working with the sector to ensure patients and psychologists are provided with certainty during the holiday period and beyond.

Telehealth has been vital in ensuring more Australians are provided with accessible, affordable and continuous mental health care than ever before during the pandemic and to cancel this access during Christmas will risk patient health at a time when people often need it most.

The Better Access scheme, which has doubled the number of individual Medicare subsidised psychological sessions each year up to 20 sessions has already helped thousands of Australians access mental health services and will now be extended to December 2022.

APS President Tamara Cavenett thanked the government for their decision to keep Telehealth on the Medicare Benefits Scheme saying that the consequences of not doing so would have been devastating.

“The APS welcomes this announcement. The government’s own research shows that 3.4 million people saw a health professional for their mental health in the last 12-months.

We don’t know what will happen with Omicron, but we do know that Telehealth is a vital way to keep people safely connected with their psychologist in their darkest hour.

Telehealth and Better Access are some of the cheapest ways to increase accessibility and early intervention for patients across Australia.”

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