A leading mental health academic has called for the government to double the number of subsidised sessions people can have with a psychologist, making adequate treatment for people with "full-blown" mental illness the priority. But others want the scheme broadened to include people without a diagnosis of mental illness as "preventative" health care, and to expand the range of funded treatments to counselling and psychotherapy. The federal government is reviewing the Medicare Benefits Schedule for mental health treatment, with a taskforce due to make final recommendations by the end of this year. Joan Westenberg said in her experience GPs are not good gatekeepers for mental health.Credit:Renee Nowytarger Professor Anthony Jorm at the Centre for Mental Health at the University of Melbourne said the current limit of 10 subsidised sessions in a single year was inadequate. "If you’re going to do it at all, it needs to be done properly," […]