The Federal Government's announcement in last night's budget that it plans to invest over $91 million in mental health workforce reform over the next five years has been welcomed by the Director of the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health.
The funding includes $56 million for universities to create 500 additional post graduate psychology places, $27.7 million for 500 one-year internships for provisional psychologists, and $5.9 million for 2,000 fully subsidised supervisor training sessions.
"In Australia, we produce 15,000 psychology graduates every year, but we lose an estimated 60 percent of undergraduate students to other professions," Turner Institute Director Professor Kim Cornish said.
"Only a fraction become psychologists because of a limited number of places in postgraduate clinical programs.
"These workforce training initiatives will go some way to addressing the shortage of mental health professionals and improving access to mental health services.
"Over two in five Australians aged 16-85 years (43.7 per cent or 8.6 million people) have experienced a mental health crisis at some time in their life that would have impacted every aspect of their daily functioning."
