Impact of Australia's Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care program on psychologists

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to consider the impact on psychologists of one component of the Australian Government's Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care (BOiMHC) program, namely the Access to Allied Psychological Services (ARAPY) component. This supports psychologists and general practitioners (GPs) to work together to provide optimal mental health care, via 102 projects being conducted by Divisions of General Practice. The paper was informed by data from five sources: a project-based minimum dataset; local project evaluation reports; a forum; a survey of projects; and a survey of Australian Psychological Society (APS) members. Taken together, the data from these sources showed that a significant number of psychologists are providing services through the projects, and the majority are finding it a positive and professionally rewarding experience. There is considerable variability regarding models of retaining, locating and referring to psychologists, and there are pros and cons associated with each. The major problem identified by psychologists is the level of remuneration. BOiMHC is currently moving into a new phase of continuation and expansion, and consideration was given to whether the data point to any changes that could be made to the ARAPY projects during this period of transition. In the main, the data suggest that the status quo should be retained, but the issue of remuneration must be addressed.