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Mental Health Care Plans (Medicare)
What is a Mental Health Care Plan?
If you are struggling with your mental health and don't have private health insurance, NDIS, or DVA funding, having a mental health care plan can help cover part of the cost of seeing a specialist mental health professional.
How can you get a Mental Health Care Plan?
You will have to visit your GP for an initial assessment/consultation.
This consultation usually involves a questionnaire. Your doctor will:
- Ask you a few questions
- Fill in the mental health treatment plan
- Discuss your goals with you
- Provide a referral to a mental health professional
Initially, your doctor will refer you for 6 sessions. They won’t approve all 10 sessions upfront, as they want to check in on your progress as you begin your journey toward support and healing.
After the 6th session, your psychologist will provide a brief update letter to your doctor, outlining your progress and recommending whether additional sessions are necessary.
If you would like to continue after the 6th session, you'll need to schedule another appointment with your doctor to review your progress. During this appointment, the doctor will likely ask similar questions to your first visit to assess how you're doing, how well the current treatment plan is working, and whether any adjustments are needed.
Once your doctor approves additional sessions, they will send a letter (or give it to you to deliver) to your psychologist, confirming approval for up to 4 more sessions. This will also include a referral letter, just like the original Mental Health Care Plan.
Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA)
What will DVA cover?
If you have a valid White card or Gold Card (with or without TPI Status), you will be eligible for ongoing mental health services to ensure your transition through (and out of) the military can be managed.
What Referral do you Need?
You will have to visit your GP for an initial assessment/consultation.
This consultation usually involves a questionnaire. Your doctor will:
- Ask you a few questions
- Fill in the mental health treatment plan
- Discuss your goals with you
- Provide a referral to a mental health professional
Initially, your doctor will refer you for 12 sessions (known as the "treatment cycle"). This is a way to refer clients to allied health providers. A referral to an allied health provider will last either 12 sessions or 1 year, whichever ends first. Your psychologist will then write an End of Cycle Report to your GP to request further treatment if necessary. You can have as many treatment cycles as your GP decides is clinically necessary.
What Type of Therapies Do We Do?
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
CBT helps you to identify, challenge, and change unhelpful ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. This is aimed to give some immediate relief through behavioural strategies to improve your quality of life.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT encourages a mindful approach - bringing our attention to what we can control in our present moment. So often, we focus on things that have happened in the past or in the future, which are two things we cannot control. This can cloud our judgement and joy of the moment we are in.
Solutions-Focussed Brief Therapy
Solution-focussed therapy is based on the idea that focussing only on problems is not very effective, but how we can develop solutions to fix them; people tend to develop default problem patterns based on their experiences, as well as default solution patterns.
Exposure Therapies
Exposure therapies are often used for various anxieties and fears. Individuals work with their psychologist to construct a step-by-step hierarchy, keeping goals achievable. In gradually facing your fear, you can learn to effectively overcome it.
Walk 'n' Talk Sessions
Sitting in four walls isn't everyone's cup of tea, especially if you are discussing difficult experiences. If the client is interested, we encourage Walk 'n' Talk sessions: a video call with both the psychologist and client being outside of their usual space - perhaps walking or sitting at a park. This can be a great way to get up and moving, feel productive, and reduce stress, all while speaking to your psychologist. We aim to practice what we preach.