We’ve previously reported that the Victorian government had failed the first test in its promise to fully fund the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Public Mental Health System.
The Mental Royal Commission in its interim report in 2019 recommended that 60 graduate places across allied health, psychology and pharmacy be funded.
The government only provided funding for 43 positions.
The VPA fiercely advocated at meetings with the Mental Health and Wellbeing Division of the Department of Health and with the Minister’s Office that the full 60 places should be funded.
That advocacy has been successful with the full 60 graduate positions being funded in 2022 and each year thereafter, as per the Royal Commission’s recommendation.
We also opposed the proposal to fund 37 Occupational Therapists and Social Worker positions and only 6 psychology Registrar positions. That has now been scrapped as well.
Health services will now be able to nominate the disciplines that they want to recruit as part of an expression of interest process.
That should mean that health services will be asking for more than just 6 psychology Registrar positions in total. And all positions are fully funded with an allocation of funds for psychology educators and supervisors to support the new Registrar positions.
The VPA thanks members for your feedback.
