Australia’s first national online mental health clinic launched

Access Macquarie was announced as the provider of a new online clinic by the Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, the Hon. Mark Butler during Mental Health Week in October 2012.

The new online clinic provides confidential assistance to people nationally via the internet, phone or email. This initiative is part of the Australian Government’s mental health reform package and will improve access plan to expand to mental health services in remote areas across Australia. This online clinic will bridge this gap as well as provide a powerful complement to traditional face-to-face services.

The online clinic will provide a great service to consumers given that more than three million Australian adults experience clinical symptoms of anxiety and depression each year, yet less than 40 per cent seek treatment. Reports have shown barriers to treatment include financial costs, shortage of skilled workers (especially in rural and remote communities), long waiting lists, stigma, reluctance to attend treatment, and the difficulty of accessing services out of work hours.

The objectives are to increase access to effective psychological treatment for people with mild to moderate mental health disorders; to expand the range of mental health services available on-line, and to contribute to improving mental health outcomes for Australians.

“Our online services will complement face-to-face mental health support and the existing automated online Teleweb programs, which will be available through the online mental health portal, mindhealthconnect” says Project Director, Associate Professor Nickolai Titov.

“We will employ allied mental health workers and psychiatrists, and will have the capacity to escalate care in high needs cases. In addition to self-help support, clinician assisted online real time psychological treatment will be delivered to people with high prevalence mental disorders via online real time cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programs.”

(Source: Macquarie University)