Cuts to mental health counselling reversed

The Federal Government has been commended for listening to community concerns and reinstating rebatable mental health sessions under the Better Access program, however the National LGBTI Health Alliance has warned that the government’s timetable for increasing the capacity of new services targeting mental health by 2013 may not be realistic.

Following a $580 million cut to the program in last year’s federal budget, mental health patients were, from November of last year, allowed only 10 annual Medicare-rebated counselling sessions with GPs, psychologists or social workers, down from the previous 18 sessions per year.

The Federal Government said at the time that while the scheme was working well for those it reached, it was not servicing hard to reach groups like young people, men, people living in rural and remote regions, Indigenous Australians and people living in areas of high socioeconomic disadvantage.

In announcing the changes, Mental Health Minister Mark Butler said that the Government had come to a realisation that while Better Access was never intended to provide intensive services or ongoing therapy, some people with complex needs had come to rely on the program.

“We recognise that reducing the number of rebatable sessions has caused some community concern and that the new services in our mental health package need to build further capacity before they are fully able to provide care and support to those with more complex needs,” Butler said.

“We will therefore reinstate the additional 6 services under ‘exceptional circumstances’ for a transitional period to 31 December 2012. The transitional period will provide sufficient time for our new mental health services to build capacity and effectively respond to people with more complex needs.”

The changes which come into effect from March 1 mean that eligible individuals can receive up to 16 services in the transitional period where a patient’s treating health professional agrees that ‘exceptional circumstances’ apply.

General manager of the National LGBTI Health Alliance, Warren Talbot, said the Government’s decision would have a positive impact on the mental health of people within the LGBTI community.

“A number of Alliance members had stated their concern that the reduction of sessions to 10 could disadvantage LGBTI and other people.

“It is likely that LGBTI people, being referred by their GP to a psychologist, will have more complex and longer term mental health issues to deal with,” Talbot said.

“The cost of counselling has been identified as a major barrier to people accessing mental health care and that affordable counselling options are essential for improving the mental health status of LGBTI people.”

Paul Martin, the principal psychologist at Brisbane’s Centre for Human Potential, told SX that he was greatly relieved to hear the recent announcement but held concerns for what would happen after the next 12 months.

“The Government’s own Senate Enquiry demonstrated that the Better Access program was possibly the most successful Medicare program in history, so it is beyond anybody why they recently chose to slash it,” Martin said.

“Due to living in a homophobic world, our LGBTI populations have much higher levels of emotional distress, substance abuse and psychological disorders and are more than 4 times more likely to attempt suicide, with the rate for transgender people even higher. This means that the Medicare rebates were a lifeline for a large number of people in our communities.”

Talbot added that although the Alliance supported the Commonwealth’s goals in terms of capacity building for mental health services, the government’s deadline of 2013 may not be a realistic timetable.

“The challenge is what will happen in 2013 when the Better Access sessions will again be reduced to only 10,” he said.

For more information about the changes to Better Access, visit http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-ba-fact-transqa