These past few years have been fraught with uncertainty and stress as the whole world grappled to adjust and cope with the emergence of COVID-19 and the radical impact it had on the way we lived our lives. In the post-COVID years, stress and uncertainty related to the cost of living have taken a massive hit on our mental and emotional health as we have had to adjust and adapt to a fluctuating situation rapidly.
If you have sometimes found yourself struggling with your mental and emotional health, please know you are not alone. Latest research from the Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre (Gurvich et al 2020) in Melbourne shows that the rates of depression, anxiety and stress have risen across the community, with women in particular disproportionally affected:
- 35% of females and 19% of men have moderate to severer levels of depression
- 27% of females and 10% of men have moderate to severe levels of stress
- 21% of females and 9% of males have moderate to severe levels of anxiety
Mental health care plans are designed to help people access the support they need to manage their mental health concerns. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to access a mental health care plan in Australia:
Step 1: Speak to your GP. The first step in accessing a mental health care plan is to speak to your general practitioner (GP). Your GP can help you identify the best course of treatment for your mental health concerns and refer you to a mental health professional, such as a mental health social worker, mental health occupational therapist, psychologist, mental health nurse or psychiatrist.
Step 2: Book an appointment with a mental health professional. Once you have a referral from your GP, you can book an appointment with a mental health professional. It is entirely your choice in which kind of mental health professional you would like to work with, be it mental health social worker, psychologist, mental health occupational therapist or mental health nurse. These mental health professionals must meet strict accreditation requirements according to their professional bodies to be able to provide services via a mental health care plan.
Step 3: Attend the initial appointment. At your initial appointment, the mental health professional will assess your mental health concerns and develop a treatment plan tailored to your needs.
Step 4: Review your mental health care plan. In Australia, up to ten subsidised sessions with a mental health care professional can be accessed in a calendar year. At the start of your mental health care plan, your GP will allocate generally six sessions initially. If your mental health professional believes that you would benefit from ongoing treatment, they will recommend to your GP that you be able to access the remaining four sessions.
Step 5: Attend ongoing appointments. Once your mental health care plan has been reviewed, you can attend ongoing appointments with your mental health professional. These appointments may involve talk therapy, medication management, or a combination of both.
Step 6: Review your progress. It’s important to review your progress with your mental health professional regularly. This can help to ensure that your treatment plan is still appropriate and can be modified if necessary.
In summary, accessing a mental health care plan in Australia involves speaking to your GP, booking an appointment with a mental health professional, attending the initial appointment, obtaining a mental health care plan, attending ongoing appointments, and reviewing your progress regularly. If you are experiencing mental health concerns, seeking help and support as soon as possible is important.
Here at Centre Self Collective, we work with many people with active mental health care plans and work collaboratively with their GP to ensure they receive the best treatment and care for them. It is important to note that the type of therapy we provide (Schema Therapy, EMDR, ACT, Emotion Focused Therapy) means we typically work with people mid to long-term. This means that an effective treatment plan will normally require a commitment to attending sessions over and above the ten sessions allocated by Medicare. It’s important to consider this as you contemplate if therapy is the right step for you.
If you are ready to talk to a clinician to see if therapy can help you, you can book a free 15 min consult here with one of our mental health clinicians. Centre Self Collective is based in Brunswick, Melbourne and Daylesford. We also have telehealth options available. We currently have no waitlist and are accepting new clients now.
Talk again soon!
CSC Team.