The impact of changed incentives for general practice mental health care training in rural and remote Australia
Dr Darcy Smith, GPMHSC, Australia*
Dr Kathryn Kirkpatrick, GPMHSC, Australia
Prof Graham Meadows, GPMHSC, Australia
Context: Medicare primary mental healthcare incentives have been in flux in recent years. 2006 saw the introduction of Medicare funding for psychological treatment services provided by psychologists and allied health providers. However, limited availability of the specialist health care workforce in rural and remote Australia remains in mental health care, as well as other specialities, and the increase in psychological treatments delivered via these new items has not been equally distributed. Rather, there has been greater activity in metropolitan areas. Therefore, the GP is an especially important provider of mental healthcare in rural and remote Australia. Changes to Medicare item numbers from January 2010 impose increased training requirements for claiming full rebates for GP mental health treatment plans (MHTPs).
Objectives:
- To outline the role of the General Practice Mental Health Standards Collaboration (GPMHSC) in setting standards for GP Mental Health training and MHTPs.
- To explore the national impact of recent changes in rebate structures on training.
- To describe the relative availability and uptake of GPMHSC accredited training in rural and remote areas.
Key Messages:
- The presentation will provide an overview of available mental health training, including online options.
- Urban and rural disparities, evident in the delivery of mental health training and the completions data to Medicare, will be discussed.
- Data, focussing on the dramatic increase in applications for approvals of mental health training since the announcement of the rebate changes, will be explored.
Conclusion: Following recent Medicare eligibility changes, momentum lost for several years in the development and presentation of high quality and consistent GP Mental Health Skills Training is now being regained. There remains a challenge to ensure that general improvements in mental health care training and delivery are equally available to remote and rural practices.
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