A shortage of psychologists in central Victoria has left a long-running Bendigo practice struggling to meet demand for its services.
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The Anna Centre began operating in Bendigo 25 years ago with just one staff member.
It now employs nine psychologists, and runs five satellite sites around the region.
“That gives you some sort of idea for the expanding need,” principal psychologist Meddwyn Coleman said.
She explained her service had need for two more mental health professionals, but it had difficulty luring appropriately trained personnel from major cities.
“I find it easier to fill the Lancefield, Kyneton centres,” she said.
“The further you are from Melbourne, the harder to get appropriately qualified staff.”
Plans for another outreach site in Cohuna were also scuttled because no qualified person could be found to staff the location.
Except for those facing an immediate crisis, Bendigo residents could be forced to wait as long as five weeks for their first appointment at The Anna Centre, Mrs Coleman said.
“Everything we try to do is limited by resourcing,” she said.
The practice already kept its doors open on Thursday nights and Saturday mornings to accommodate clients, something Mrs Coleman admitted placed a strain upon existing staff.
“Anyone in a care giving profession has difficulty saying no. It does create a stress with it.”
But the situation was not unique to central Victoria, Australian Psychological Society professional practice manager Louise Roufeil said, with remote and regional communities nationwide facing a drought of mental health workers, including psychologists.
“Mental health services outside of capital cities have been inadequate for a long, long time,” she said.
The trouble for private practices like The Anna Centre was a lack of interns, Mrs Roufeil said, people she believed were likely to accept jobs in regional locations.
But intern numbers had dwindled since regulation became more stringent, with practices required to pay supervisors to oversee the work of new graduates.
She said offering courses at regional university campuses could help fill the gaps, and local councils could offer incentives that enticed psychologists into their neighbourhood.
But she feared small towns’ populations meant private practice was not an attractive option to many workers.
Still, it was a problem in need of addressing, Mrs Coleman said.
“You've only got to look at suicide rates among farmers to know [mental health stigma] is still pretty deeply entrenched.”