More Australians are putting off mental health appointments due to rising costs of living. In 2022-23, 19.3% of people delayed seeing a mental health professional due to cost, compared to 12% in 2020-21. At the same time, in 2022-2023, there was a 4% decline in Medicare funded therapy sessions compared to 2021-22. When Health Minister, Mark Butler, halved the number of Medicare rebated sessions for psychology in January 2023, he promised to replace this system with more effective alternatives, but over a year later, has produced nothing. This continued inaction is severely impacting those who don’t have the funds to pay for psychological therapy once rebates run out, and those with chronic or severe mental health conditions who do not qualify for care in the public system. When will Mark Butler do more to help the five million Australians who experience chronic mental health conditions every year?

Prescriptions for ADHD have more than doubled in five years, with more than 400,000 Australians on medication for the disorder.

Clearly, the need to explore why the rate of diagnoses has climbed so rapidly is at the centre of future plans for mental health management.

Institute of Clinical Psychologists President Marjorie Collins told Julie-Anne Sprague on 6PR Afternoons there are a lot more people either becoming aware of their own symptoms, or at least getting in contact with professionals who can help them when they are struggling.

“Even people in their sixties as well are coming in for their first assessments of ADHD and being found to in fact have had ADHD their entire lives, which has happened in their life in one way or the other,” Dr Collins said. 

Australia’s ADHD explosion: awareness or overdoing it?