I am calling on the Labor government to agree to a 12 month moratorium on the cutting of Medicare Better Access Initiative to Psychologists from 18 sessions to ten sessions.<\/p>\n
I have accessed the Medicare Better Access Initiative since 2006 utilising all 18 sessions per year for the past five years.\u00a0 I am now mentally well and working (which means I am now a tax payer).\u00a0 There are many and varied reasons why at least 18 sessions of therapy is vital for therapy to be successful.<\/p>\n
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1. Establishing Trust and Rapport.<\/strong><\/p>\n You are meeting a stranger for the first time and trust needs to be established before you can tell them your life story of trauma, relationship breakdowns and job losses etc.\u00a0 This happens gradually over a period of time as the relationship gains trust and rapport.\u00a0 This is a process that requires tact, diplomacy, grace and dignity.\u00a0 This is not like cancer treatment, setting a broken bone or repairing a split spleen or liver.\u00a0 Therapy can involve dealing with much ingrained shame, guilt, judgement and self-criticism.\u00a0 Having a mental illness can make some people feel so ashamed they are suicidal.<\/strong><\/p>\n 2. The presenting issue is rarely the problem.<\/strong><\/p>\n When you present to a psychologist because you are having work\/relationship\/family issues or eating disorders, alcohol and drug dependency and start to delve into why they are not working, you can uncover some debilitating long kept hidden trauma, such as sexual abuse, bullying at school, physical abuse that you have not previously made connections with between your current events and your past history.\u00a0 Dealing with them takes more than ten sessions when you take into account history taking, house-keeping and trust and rapport.<\/strong><\/p>\n 3. Client\/Therapist fit.<\/strong><\/p>\n You need to \u201cclick\u201d with your therapist.\u00a0 The relationship (fit) is more important than the technique used.\u00a0 This is a well known fact within psychology circles and evidence-based-research shows this. <\/strong><\/p>\n 4. Six plus four sessions is not based on evidence-based research.<\/strong><\/p>\n Before the Budget cuts were announced, the Medicare Better Access Initiative was reviewed very favourably because it was successful.\u00a0 Evidence-based research has found that 15-20 sessions is about the minimum amount for a mild mental health issue to be resolved.<\/p>\n 5. Not everyone needs or wants 50 sessions with a psychiatrist because they perform a different role from a psychologist<\/strong><\/p>\n If you are not on medication, it does not mean you don\u2019t have a severe mental illness. Psychiatrists do not practice talk therapy, they tend to have 3-4 short sessions per hour specifically to deal with medication issues, ie trying new medication, changing any ineffective medication and getting that medication in harmony with your mental health condition.\u00a0 There is not \u201cone size fits all\u201d cure.\u00a0 Talk therapy is left to psychologists and neuroplasticity evidence-based research shows that the right psychotherapeutic talk relationship can change the shape, structure and chemistry of the brain in a positive manner alleviating the symptoms of depression and anxiety.\u00a0 It is also showing great positive steps in alleviating the hearing of voices as well.\u00a0 Medication does not suit everyone, is very potent and the side effects can be worse than the \u201ccure\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n 6. Not everyone can access ATAPS, nor do they need a team-based-approach.<\/strong><\/p>\n I do not qualify for ATAPS because I am not considered to be of low socio-economic status, indigenous or living in a rural area.\u00a0 We are not battlers, neither are we rich or middle-class.\u00a0 We are caught in-between.\u00a0 Although I had severe mental illness, I did not need a team based approach.\u00a0 One-on-one psychology sessions worked for me.<\/strong><\/p>\n 7. Better Access 12 \u2013 18 Sessions is better than emergency department visits or psychiatric hospital stays.<\/strong><\/p>\n Better Access 12 \u2013 18 sessions has enabled me to live my life in mental harmony.\u00a0 People with severe mental illness need more sessions and these extra sessions develop more mind skills.\u00a0 Six sessions plus four barely covers housekeeping rules, mental health history and a chance to establish trust and rapport.\u00a0 If 18 sessions is working and it did for me, keeping me out of hospital on several occasions, then surely that is more cost effective for the Labor government than me visiting emergency departments or having lengthy psychiatric hospital stays.\u00a0 It makes financial sense to keep Better Access 12 \u2013 18 sessions as they are for the 13% who have used them.\u00a0 If it is not broken, don\u2019t fix it.<\/strong><\/p>\n 8. Only 5% accessed all 18 sessions.<\/strong><\/p>\n If this is the case then the financial cost of keeping Better Access as it stands will not cost much more than changing it to 6 + 4.\u00a0 But if those 5% who accessed all 18 sessions can only have 6 + 4 sessions, then those 5% of people will not get the additional support they require and emergency departments and psychiatric hospitals will be obliged to take up the slack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am calling on the Labor government to agree to a 12 month moratorium on the cutting of Medicare Better Access Initiative to Psychologists from 18 sessions to ten sessions. I have accessed the Medicare Better Access Initiative since 2006 utilising all 18 sessions per year for the past five years.\u00a0 I am now mentally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c81-information"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drben.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drben.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drben.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drben.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drben.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drben.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drben.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drben.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drben.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}