Medicare can offer up to 10 yearly sessions with a psychologist, but you will need a GP referral.
Most common medication for mental health conditions are covered by the PBS (SSRIs, for example).
If you need more sessions, private health insurance can help with the cost of seeing a mental health professional.
THERE IS ALWAYS SUPPORT AVAILABLE
If things have gotten really bad, please talk to someone right away. If you don't have time to get to your GP fast enough, here are some phone numbers you can use right away.
If your situation is an emergency or life-threatening, call 000.
If you need someone to talk to, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
If you need to go to hospital for psychiatric services, you are covered as a public patient under Medicare. To be covered as a private patient, you'll need private hospital cover. Specifically, you'll need a hospital policy that has full coverage for psychiatric services. A lot of cheaper policies have restricted cover for this, but that will cover very little of the treatment costs, so make sure you get something with proper coverage. This is always covered under Gold policies, but can be covered on some Bronze Plus and Silver Plus roles too.
Psychiatric care has some special waiting periods exemptions. Psychiatric care has a 2 month waiting period, even if there are pre-existing conditions. Pre-existing conditions normally trigger a 12 month waiting period, but this one is an exception.
Depending on your age, you may be eligible for an
aged-based discount. This is used to estimate your
rebate.
Under 65
65 - 69
70 or older
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This is the combined income you and your spouse earn before tax. It's needed to calculate the correct Australian government rebate.
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$93,001 to $108,000
$108,001 to $144,000
$144,001 and over
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*Prices updated March 2024, in line with Finder's
database of health insurance policies. Prices are based
on a single individual with less than $93,000 income and
living in Sydney with a $750 excess.
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What do we mean when we talk about mental health?
Mental health refers to how you feel emotionally and psychologically and how you're able to weather the ups and downs of life. It covers all of the following:
Your mood
Your ability to make good decisions
How you behave
How you handle stress
How you relate to others
You can think of mental illness as a health problem that significantly affects any of the abilities mentioned above. According to the Black Dog Institute, a leading non-profit Australian mental health organisation, one in five Australians is living with a mental illness at any given time.
What healthcare support is there in Australia?
Mental health treatment sometimes requires a cocktail of treatments and medications. Luckily, there is a variety of professionals who are trained to treat various aspects of mental illness. These include:
General practitioners. This should be the first port of call for anyone needing help with a mental health condition. GPs can coordinate the treatment of mild mental issues by prescribing medication and/or referring the patient to a psychologist for therapy. For more serious cases, they may be referred to a psychiatrist for further diagnosis.
Psychologists. You would visit a psychologist for therapy or counselling. Psychologists can help with almost all mental issues, from the mildest conditions to the most severe. You can see them without a referral and without needing to be on medication.
Psychiatrists. These are medical specialists who have trained to diagnose and treat mental disorders. They take on more severe cases that a GP is not qualified to diagnose. Psychiatrists can prescribe specialised medication and lay out a treatment plan that may also include therapy.
The Better Access Initiative
In 2006, the Australian government launched the Better Access initiative, which gives people improved access to mental health treatments under Medicare.
Under this initiative, anyone with a mental health issue is covered for up to 10 sessions with a qualified psychologist and psychiatrist. All that's required is that you see your GP first to get a mental health treatment plan.
If you require hospitalisation, Medicare will cover you for treatment in a public hospital.
Why you can trust Finder's health insurance experts
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Gary Ross Hunter was an editor at Finder, specialising in insurance. He’s been writing about life, travel, home, car, pet and health insurance for over 6 years and regularly appears as an insurance expert in publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian and news.com.au. Gary holds a Kaplan Tier 2 General Advice General Insurance certification which meets the requirements of ASIC Regulatory Guide 146 (RG146). See full bio
Gary Ross's expertise
Gary Ross has written 725 Finder guides across topics including:
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You pay nothing. Finder is free to use. And you pay the same as going direct. No markups, no hidden fees.
You save time. We spend 100s of hours researching health insurance so you can sort the gold from the junk faster.
You can trust us. We say it like it is. We aren't owned by an insurer and our opinions are our own.
