Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to ask the Assistant Minister for Health for some more information about the issues around telehealth, the initiative announced last month. As the minister would be aware, I represent a rural and regional area of Australia. I represent people in very small communities, often farming communities. I represent people from places like Augusta and Nannup, Donnybrook and Yarloop, Benger and Kirup and Balingup. All of these people certainly will have greater access to psychologists under the government's new telehealth initiative announced early last month, and that is very good news for people in those more remote areas. My area is a regional area, and I suspect that for more remote Australians this is fantastic news.

We know that one in five people each year will experience a mental health issue, and we know the emotional toll on the sufferers and their families that goes with that. Of course, we know that people in the areas I am referring to either find it extremely difficult to access services or are not doing it at all. Often we see greater health challenges in rural and regional Australia because of the lack of access to services. I know that under the new arrangements up to seven of the 10 sessions currently available under the Medicare mental health plan will be available via telehealth. That is fantastic news. People will be able to claim a Medicare rebate for what will be convenient and timely online videoconferencing consultations with psychologists and other health professionals. Depending on the condition of the individual, their particular psychologist could actually be thousands of kilometres away. People will be able to access those services even when they have challenges in actually travelling to the services they need. The health professionals themselves will be able to connect sooner and more regularly to patients in need of their services.

I know that Dr Ewen McPhee, President of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia, has acknowledged how important early intervention in acute mental health can be. I see that most particularly in rural and regional areas. I would mention in particular the little town of Yarloop, where we saw the dreadful bushfires. There is an ongoing need for these types of services for not just the people of Yarloop but also the broader farming community and the small businesses who were so affected by those fires. It is a long-term issue for them.

I know that my regional people are very strong and stoic, and often they do not talk about the problems that they might have. I think that some of them will find it far easier to be able to connect via telehealth, without fronting up at a physical location and having their car parked out the front. That is difficult for many to deal with, men in particular, which is also why our regional counsellors are so important. I know that this is very important, and it will be in the more remote and regional areas right across Australia. Assistant Minister, is this the first time a federal government is actually providing the Medicare rebate for psychological services for regional and remote Australians—something that is particularly important to them?

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