Month: April 2023

Categories
Opinion/Commentary

Rent or therapy: the choice Australians shouldn’t have to make

Human hands unraveling red threads on human head, representing the human brain
Image: Ildar Abulkhanov, iStock

This is horrible.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, provisional psychologist, Emily Radford has clients that have to choose between paying for therapy or paying rent. Radford is a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) provider. However, they have clients that pay out of pocket.

Radford offers same services to both sets of clients:

Radford’s rate is A$156.00 a session. Provisional psychologists aren’t covered under Medicare. Meaning, clients have to pay full fee unless they have private insurance.

Psychologists push for reform

Cropped shot of psychologist with a long sleeved blue shirt taking notes and talking to client
Image: PeopleImages, iStock

Psychologists are pushing for reform. Two psychological bodies are pushing the Labor Government to allow provisional psychologists to be covered under Medicare. This will increase the workforce by 8,000.

However, many argue that this will further burden the Medicare system. Instead, the Government should invest in higher education pathways and incentives for students to work in regional areas.

Some commenters claimed that covering provisional psychologists under Medicare is a bad idea. As someone who isn’t in the mental health field, I found some of these comments to the SMH article insightful.

One wrote:

I am a clinical psychologist and supervisor of trainees (provisional psychologists). The vast majority of trainees are not ready to provide services to the standard required by Medicare. They also require very close supervision and we currently have a shortage of supervisors.

BD, comment to SMH, 17 April 2023

One comment suggested a change to psychology training requirements.

I’m in the profession and the idea of Medicare subsidising trainees is a big mistake. “The government would be better off putting more money into the training system to enhance the workforce” – totally agree with that. Also, the professional body itself makes it very difficult for people who have studied for years to become an actual Psychologist – generalist undergraduate degrees, minimum masters that are impossible to get into or alternative pathways that have insanely complex requirements, and then the more recent cash cow hurdle of to do an [sic] paper exam to enter into the profession.

AP from Melb, comment to SMH, 19 April 2023

What Labor plans to do

Stupidly, the Labor cut Medicare Better Access sessions from twenty to 10 last year.

Federal Health Minister, Butler, says he wants mental health care to be more accessible. However, Labor have no policy to reform it.

What can be done?

Before working on this post, my response was simple — take a leaf out of UK’s book. Mental health services should be fully covered Medicare. (Mental health under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has been a disaster).

However, I realise this view is over idealistic. It looks like the training process for potential psychologists needs an overhaul. To be honest, it seems like a nightmare.

Red tape needs be cut in training psychologists. It shouldn’t be “impossible” to do a Masters or alternative pathway. Then maybe -— just maybe — psychologists might be more accessible. And, who knows, they may become properly covered under Medicare.

What do you think? How can mental health services improve? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Categories
Opinion/Commentary

Pauline Hanson condemned for NDIS cartoon

On Good Friday, One Nation’s Pauline Hanson YouTube channel Please Explain caused a stir. It mocked the (supposed) ‘rorts’ that have occurred in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

In the cartoon, characters refer to the NDIS as a “scam” and “rort”. It contains parodies of Coalition leader, Peter Dutton, Deputy Leader, Sussan Ley and Greens’ Jordon Steele – John, who is the first Australian senator who uses a wheelchair.

Here is the video:

In the video description, Hanson defends the cartoon:

We all know that Labor loves to spend your money like it’s going out of fashion but they have taken it to a new level with the NDIS.

While a National Disability Insurance Scheme to protect the most vulnerable sounds giood on paper the reality is the NDIS has become a scandal – plagued, scam-riddled, budget disaster.

Disability advocates condemn the video

Not surprisingly, disability advocates have condemned the video. People With Disability Australia (PWDA) and Advocacy For Inclusion (AFI) called the video “repugnant, hateful and discriminatory”.

The insensitive cruelty of this propaganda by the Hanson team stoops to new lows, with its offensive, inappropriate and inaccurate depictions of disability supports under the NDIS.

PWDA President, Nicole Lee

Wheelchair paralympian, Kurt Fearnley took to Twitter, saying he was “ashamed” for Australia to have One Nation.

Head of Policy at AFI and NDIS campaigner, Craig Wallace, echoed Lee’s condemnation:

The video inspires hatred against disabled people and is a particularly nasty and vile depiction of the lives of highly vulnerable people with a disability… it should be roundly condemned by all decent Australians, including our national leaders.

Another issue that Wallace had was the reference to the NDIS as a scam. He argued that people with disabilities were more likely to be a victim of a scam, rather than a perpetrator.

PWDA and AFI have requested that the video be removed and for Pauline Hanson to publicly apologise to the audience.

History of demonising the NDIS

One Nation aren’t the only ones who’ve demonised the NDIS. I’ve been very critical of Herald Sun’s reporting on the NDIS. I argued that the article gave no context in why items like iPads were needed.

Newscorp journalists have made outrageous claims of ways people were supposedly exploiting the NDIS.

In 2017, columnist Andrew Bolt claimed that gardeners were employed by families whose children were on the autism spectrum. There was no mention of severity, whether they were non – verbal, psychological challenges the children faced. Nothing.

I believe the demonisation of the NDIS, especially so vaguely, is dangerous.

In 2020, David Harris, then fifty – five, died after his NDIS funding was cut off. His sister, Leanne Longfellow, raised the alarm when she couldn’t get in contact with him. New South Wales Police later found him deceased in his home.

Before his funding was cut, Harris had a nurse to administer injections to treat his schizophrenia and diabetes. He also had a gardener and cleaner, who he lost after his funds were cut.

In 2018, Tim Rubenach died while waiting for for a tilt bed to help his severe epilepsy. It didn’t arrive, even after Rubenach had passed away.

I could go on and cite more cases, but you get the point.

The video is potentially dangerous

It’s clear the Pauline Hanson Please Explain video was satire and hyperbolic. However, it is potentially dangerous.

Demonising the NDIS and those on it risks funding being seriously slashed. People who need assistance will miss out again. And I fear people will die waiting again.

If someone is genuinely rorting the NDIS, prosecute them. If a NDIS provider is rorting the system, prosecute them. But leave the rest of the participants and providers alone.

For people on the NDIS, the services are essential. It gives them a level of control and independence. It allows people to live a life that most people take for granted. This shouldn’t be taken away because of fear – mongering.

What do you think about the Pauline Hanson Please Explain cartoon? Feel free to leave any thoughts below.