Following the release of the Final Report of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, the VPA has invested resources to engage with the Department in consultation.
In December last year, the Department published the anticipated Mental Health Workforce Strategy. You can find a copy of the strategy here.
The Strategy Paper aims to set out a coordinated and strategic approach to deliver the diverse, skilled and multidisciplinary workforce required for Victoria’s reformed mental health and wellbeing system. From our perspective, it is not meeting this aim.
This week, the VPA took the opportunity to formally respond to the Strategy. A copy of our response is here.
Among other things, the VPA is calling on the Victorian Government to:
- Appoint a Chief Psychologist, so that there is a voice for psychology in the Department of Health;
- Work with the Commonwealth Government to increase CSP places for clinical, forensic and neuropsychology postgraduate courses, to help address a looming shortage; and
- Address supply and the outsourcing of psychology services in Victoria, by creating a workforce strategy which allocates additional funding for new psychology positions in public mental health.
