A plan can support you as you help yourself:. What is a mental health care plan? A mental health care plan might include: A referral to an expert, like a psychologist The types of mental health care that can support you Other strategies to improve and maintain your mental health, like our tips for a healthy headspace.
What do I do to get a mental health care plan? What support can I get? Types of support you may be able to get with a mental health care plan include: one-on-one sessions with a psychologist group psychologist sessions sessions with a social worker or another allied health practitioner. Your doctor can help you find experts in your area. How do I prepare? So if you went back now to get a referral for the extra sessions, you don't have to use them up by December.
But any sessions you carried into next year would be counted in your maximum 20 sessions for Once you've got that, you can be referred on to an allied mental health service that accepts the Medicare rebate. Initially you can only be referred for a maximum of six sessions. After that you'll have to go back to your GP who can extend your referral for more, if you need it.
Some services will bulk bill, and cover the whole cost of the appointment, but for others you'll have to pay the difference between the rebate and session's full price.
Alternatively, your Psychologist may opt to submit the request for you. In this instance your Psychologist will still provide you with an invoice, but they will then use the online gateways available to them to submit the rebate request. This normally results in the funds arriving in your bank account within around hours. Not at all! You Doctor may recommend a Psychologist to you that they know, but ultimately the choice is yours. A word of mouth referral is often a great way to find a high quality Psychologist.
Keep in mind that these organisations are not mandatory for Psychologists to join though, so their databases will not list every Psychologist available; just their registered members.
Sometimes you might have moved. You are still eligible for 20 rebated sessions per year. This is another one of those complicated things.
Thankfully in the Australian government finally added telehealth sessions to the register. This meant you could now do skype or facetime sessions and get a rebate through a Mental Health Care Plan. But there are a few pretty restrictive stipulations:.
At present Australians are able to claim telehealth video and telephone sessions under Medicare as they would for face-to-face sessions. This currently has an end date on it as do many of the COVID stimulus provisions, but fingers crossed the government will decide to let us all stay in the 21st century and maintain the rebate past December Unfortunately, you can only claim back money on your sessions with either a Mental Health Care Plan or your private health fund.
A mental health care plan gives people access to up to 10 Medicare subsidised mental health care appointments per year, as well as a framework for other treatments with your referring practitioner or other healthcare specialists.
As part of your mental health treatment plan, your GP may prescribe medication to help with disorders such as anxiety and depression while the mental health professional will offer counseling or more specific treatments. As many psychologists and other mental health professionals do not typically bulk-bill, seeking a course of treatment can seem like a rather daunting prospect for a number of Australians, especially in times of financial uncertainty.
The mental health care plan gives a Medicare rebate on the 10 sessions allowed under the plan. If the mental health professional bulk-bills there is obviously no charge to the patient. If they do charge, the patient must pay the gap between fee and Medicare subsidy. Although a mental health care plan allows for 10 appointments with a mental health professional in a calendar year, the initial referral made by your GP is only good for the first 6 sessions.
After those six appointments it is usually necessary to make an appointment with your GP to follow up on your treatment and get a referral for your final four sessions for the calendar year if they are needed.
Book an appointment with your doctor and talk to them about putting together a mental health care plan.
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