Australia's peak body for psychology, the Australian Psychological Society (APS) is calling for urgent collaborative action following new national modelling showing a growing gap between demand for psychology services and the capacity of the psychology workforce to meet it.
The Psychology Supply and Demand Study report, released by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing today, shows that while the psychology workforce is projected to grow, it is not expected to keep pace with demand for services. The report indicates that access to psychology services in health settings is already falling short, by 57.3% in 2025 and is projected to reach a staggering 96.6% shortfall by 2038.
APS President Dr Kelly Gough said the findings confirm what the APS and our members have been sounding the alarm about for years: that there is chronic underinvestment in the psychology profession which is negatively impacting the Australian community's access to much needed services and creating challenging conditions for psychologists in training and currently in practice. He warned that increasing workforce numbers alone will not resolve the issue:
"This is not just about how many psychologists we train. It's about whether psychologists can sustainably work where they are needed most"
"This isn't just a shortage - it's a system that isn't using psychologists effectively".
Dr Gough said the report highlights a critical issue often overlooked.
"The number of psychologists is growing, but average working hours are declining. This means capacity isn't increasing at the same rate, even as demand grows".
He said current funding and service structures are making it harder for psychologists to work sustainably in public, community, and disability settings, as well as in regional, rural, remote parts of Australia.
"Without fixing how the system is set up, we risk training more psychologists into a system that still can't use them where they're needed most."
Dr Gough said addressing these gaps will require coordinated system reform.
"We need to make it viable for all psychologists to deliver high quality care across both public and private settings"
The APS is calling on the Federal Government to work in partnership with the APS and the psychology profession to take coordinated action, including expanding training pathways, strengthening supervision and early career workforce development, reforming funding and Medicare to better utilise the existing workforce, investing in public and rural mental health services, and improving workforce data through profession-led research..
"Without concerted action together with the psychology profession, access to care will remain limited and pressure on the workforce will continue to grow".
