PACFA President Dr Di Stow has been communicating with federal MPs, election candidates and the media about PACFA’s policy asks – including access to Medicare rebates - as set out in our Federal Election Statement 2022, leading up to the 21 May federal election.
Di discussed PACFA’s policy platform with the federal Independent Member for Clark, Andrew Wilkie and further meetings with federal MPs are in the pipeline leading up to the election.
On 6 April 2022 PACFA issued a media release detailing our strategic roadmap to helping millions of Australians access mental health support through counsellors and psychotherapists.
Listen to Di telling Canberra’s 2CC breakfast radio presenter Stephen Cenatiempo why extending the Better Access Medicare rebate to counsellors and psychotherapists is just common sense.
In our media release, headlined ‘Counsellors and psychotherapists: hidden treasure of mental health help’, we urged major parties and independent candidates to commit to policy steps that better integrate counsellors and psychotherapists into the allied and mental health workforce.
PACFA’s 5-point policy platform in our Federal Election Statement 2022 is aimed at better enabling Australians’ access to mental health support through our member counsellors and psychotherapists, who are both highly-trained and have greater availability than psychologists.
Mental Health Australia (MHA) has been writing to key politicians and candidates, alerting them to its campaign ‘Vote with mental health in mind’. Mental Health Australia has been reminding voters and election candidates that every election issue and promise has the potential to impact our mental health, from the cost of living to climate change.
PACFA also supports the key election asks of the Allied Health Professions Australia:
1. Enable full access to allied health services for early intervention and prevention throughout the life cycle
2. Strengthen and sustain the allied health workforce to meet present and future needs in all sectors
3. Fully integrate allied health as a key and distinct component into all health, care and support sectors