I’m definitely no political commentator, but as a brief round up of the latest budget and the impact to Psychology and related Mental Health and Medication supports that are of interest to me (and clients):
Source: the summaries as emailed to members of AADPA and the AAPi (because I certainly did not read the actual budget paper!!)
There is only one specific item directly related to ADHD in the entire budget:
- Ritalin® will remain on the PBS from 1 April 2025.
Autism
- Funding continues to deliver the National Autism Strategy and implement the Strategy’s First Action Plan (Health and Mental Health Roadmap for Autistics)
So where else do we see some potential positives?
- Continued funding for digital mental health services, but no real commitment to addressing unmet needs for supports (see ‘what’s missing’, below)
- Adding severe speech and language disorders to be added to the eligible disabilities under the MBS item group for complex neurodevelopmental disorder and disability services.
- A National Early Childhood Program for children with “disability or developmental concerns”. This new national program is designed to support children aged 0–8 years who have a disability or developmental concerns (e.g. language delay, social/emotional challenges, neurodevelopmental conditions eg Autism)
- The Safe and Supported Framework for at-risk children
- First Nations early years health initiatives
And sadly what remains missing:
- The current cap of 10 subsidised sessions under better access remains
- The rebate for psychology has not increased, so that bulk billing remains unviable for providing psychology services as an individual or small business and unaffordable for many Australians
- Expanding Medicare funding to prevention and early intervention services, ADHD assessment pathways and dedicated ADHD support for adults