As mental health minister in the Gillard government in 2011,Butler cut the same program from up to 18 annual sessions to 10. The previous Morrison government then doubled the number of sessions as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic,but it was always due to expire at the end of 2022.
Australian Association of Psychologists executive director Tegan Carrison said the fact that Butler previously cut the program in 2011 shows he was always biased against it.
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“When Better Access sessions were previously cut,it dramatically increased the stress on the entire healthcare system and left those needing mental healthcare with very few options,” she said.
“GPs had nowhere to send clients who needed additional support. It meant that people were under-treated,which leads to returning for care year after year.”
The Medicare subsidy provides a $131.65 rebate for a 50-minute session with a clinical psychologist and an $89.65 rebate for a psychologist.
Instead of cutting the number of Medicare-funded sessions,Carrison said the rebate should be increased to $150.
Opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston said it was the second time a Labor government had decided to “rip away additional sessions of mental health support” in a “chilling repeat of history”.
“The Labor government is clearly against the Better Access initiative and the important access to mental health services it provides vulnerable Australians,” she said.
Labor backbench MP Josh Burns said last week that while there were challenges in managing access to services,“the answer is not to reduce support for those who need it”.
“For those people who require 10 sessions of Medicare-funded mental healthcare,the extra sessions can be the differences between someone’s anxiety increasing or being effectively managed,” he said. “I think we need to reconsider this decision.”
But some prominent mental health experts – including University of Sydney professor Ian Hickie,Professor of Health Security at Australian National University Jane Halton,and Black Dog Institute executive director Sam Harvey – agreed with the government that the increased sessions meant more people were missing out.
Harvey said he hoped the changes were a step towards “meaningful and evidence-based mental healthcare reform”.
“The additional sessions offered during the pandemic was an appropriate response to the situation Australia faced two years ago,but long-term mental health reform is what is needed,” he said.
Dr Michael Carr-Gregg,a child psychologist,criticised the decision to bring it back to 10 sessions and called on Butler to resign. He said the problem was there were too few psychologists and the rebate was too low.
“The minister has misinterpreted the results of the study and ignored the recommendations of the productivity commission to extend the rebate to 40 sessions for those in need,” Carr-Gregg said.
“This decision will be catastrophic for young people,and I am anticipating that there will be more lives lost as a result.”
Butler said the government would pursue other reforms that would make a “real difference to Australians’ mental health”.
While conceding that the evaluation of the program recommended making the additional 10 sessions available to those with complex mental health needs,he said it was “not conclusive around how this could be targeted”.
“Many Better Access providers are currently at capacity,limiting access to supply,” he said.
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