For over a decade now I have tried to convince politicians of the need to address mental health care. For my part, the main focus has been on basic public access to psychological care in the community. I’ve largely been motivated by an optimistic notion of democracy: that if we inform our politicians adequately then […]
Louisa’s story
Louisa had a difficult life but never showed it. Putting on a brave face was how she got by. Nobody knew about her abusive childhood and only those closest to her were trusted with why she really left her husband. Thinking about it made her break down, collapsing and weeping, for hours on end. Frankly, […]
A re-design of psychological care
Going into the federal election last week, the Alliance for Better Access reflected about our position and decided on a change of stance to suit the times. We share the following summary for your own thoughts and discussion in the comment thread below. If you support us, please sign our online petition. The following areas of […]
A change in position
The Alliance for Better Access is now five years old. Across those years we have done almost everything you can imagine to help our politicians understand the need to improve the mental health policies of Medicare (meetings with both sides of government, petitions, youtube clips, radio interviews, television, email campaigns, memes, etc). Our position has […]
A game of Chinese whispers
The Australian Government held a party inviting the most prominent media personalities in mental health care. Now it was time for a game of Chinese Whispers. The Minister for Health leaned over to the closest of her appointed ‘experts’ and whispered softly in his ear, “No new funding, pass it on.” Each player had their […]
Mental health reforms neglect psychological care
[MEDIA RELEASE: Alliance for Better Access] Patients have expressed concern that reforms to the mental health system announced last week are being funded by cuts to psychological care. Last week’s mental health “shake-up” rips $350m of Medicare funding from the successful and popular Better Access to Mental Health Care program, through which the majority of […]
What does the “shake up” mean for mental health care?
This week the Australian Minister for Health announced a “shake up” of mental health care policy. At this early stage the details are sketchy, and so far things are not looking good for Medicare, our main system intended for universal access to primary health care. In this short blog post I will share what we […]
Medicare review: Have Your Say
A review of Medicare is underway, giving you an opportunity to have your say about access to psychological care in the system. To make this easy I have assembled some basic points you can use to strengthen your message. Thousands of people support the Alliance for Better Access. Some people are fully behind us whereas […]
Psychological care in distant places? (The NMHC Report: Part 3)
A couple of months ago the National Mental Health Commission released their full report after sections were leaked to the media ahead of the Federal Budget in May. The report makes it clear that hundreds of people wrote in calling for better access to psychological care via the Medicare system. Some of the bigger issues […]
Who should provide psychological care? (The NMHC Report: Part 2)
Since the release of the review of all mental health services in Australia, I have been carefully going through the document to understand the implications for policy change in the Better Access to Mental Health Care program. Under this program people with a mental health condition are eligible to receive psychological care supported through the Medicare […]