Medicare review confirms - it's time for change

On Tuesday the Department of Health released an interim report to the Minister for Health on the review of all Medicare items. Of the public comments received, the MBS Review Taskforce received a sizeable proportion relating directly to psychological care and the need to improve the current system. The feedback received confirms our call for change and expresses an urgency to fix the Medicare system now. With today being 'RUOK? Day' we ask our politicians to consider better ways to help people connect with psychological care when it is needed. Over 300 people who access mental health care told the MBS Review Taskforce that ten appointments are not enough. Hundreds wrote in to point out the requirement for GP referrals to get help was frequently a barrier to accessing therapy and often resulted in people going around in circles, from GPs to therapist and back again, simply for paperwork. The interim review detailed how people often attempted to ‘save’ sessions and spread them out over a number of months, thereby limiting their access to care at crucial times, or reducing the efficacy of treatment due to long breaks between sessions. Therapists raised questions about the "risk of patients becoming disengaged or stagnant in their recovery progress, or experiencing worsening symptoms, as a result of being unable to afford ongoing care after their ten sessions had been exhausted" (p. 14) Fellow Australians, please keep up the pressure on our political representatives to improve our mental health care system. This issue affects all of us in one way or another. Thank you.