Increasing the Psychology Workforce – What Happened with The Petition?
The mental health crisis within Aotearoa is something we have all felt the effects of, in some way or another. There is a higher demand for help in dealing with mental distress, a lack of psychologists to meet this demand, and private clinical psychologists turning away up to sixty clients a month due to being already at capacity. Privately practicing psychologists are unable to meet the overflow of individuals from the public system, it’s obvious that this is beyond crisis point.
A key way to begin mending the mental health crisis is by increasing the number of psychologists in training, and within the workforce.
Lucy McLean, a postgraduate student studying clinical psychology, saw how big an issue this was and began a petition, one which would eventually be brought to Parliament, showing the Government how concerned so many of us are about the growing problem.
The petition itself calls for the Government to make a long-term commitment to increasing the psychologist workforce.
There are two major barriers stopping new psychologists from training, getting registered and eventually joining the workforce:
Funding is required to increase teaching capacity, as well as help in the expanding of internal training clinics.
These new psychologists require internships to help get practical experience, but as a result of a lack of streamlined funding there are not enough services with the capacity to supervise and pay these new psychologists as interns.
As of 2021, there are around 120 intern psychologists who are enrolled across different programmes. In 2019, the Wellbeing Budget for that year lead to an increase of eight additional internships for clinical psychologists, funded by the Ministry of Health. This increased the number of internships available from 12 to 20. As of 2019, there were 2,889 registered psychologists with a practising certificate in Aotearoa. It is estimated that to help meet demands, we will need another 1,000 within the workforce. With the way the funding of education and internships for psychologists is currently, these numbers look like a hard goal to reach. If the Government were to increase funding in the areas outlined, then this number would be more attainable and put the psychology workforce in a position where they could better assess and treat the overflow of people seeking help with their mental health.
On 8 September 2021, the petition was handed over to members of Parliament: Chlöe Swarbrick of the Green Party, Louisa Wall of Labour and Matt Doocey of National, who are all members of Parliament’s Cross-Party Mental Health and Addictions Wellbeing Group.
At the time of writing, 15,473 individuals have signed the petition with the number continuing to grow.
Despite this petition being delivered to members of Parliament six months ago, seemingly nothing has come about from it. At this stage, the concerns within the petition itself have NOT been addressed by the Government, along with any calls for action.
When I asked Lucy if since delivering the petition, they felt the Government had made, or at least attempted to make investments into the funding of training and internships for psychologists being trained, they replied that they’re still waiting for any official information to be released to them.
Lucy made an Official Information Act request on 6 December 2021, three months after the petition got passed on to Parliament. Under the Official Information Act, a response to their request should’ve come back within twenty working days, yet Lucy has waited over seventy for a response.
This lack of any information regarding any progress made is a disappointment.
When asked for a comment on the matter overall, Lucy had this to say. “There’s over 15,000 people who said they want something better and I’m waiting to see what the Government come up with.”
With stressors within our own country such as the pandemic, the recent unrest we saw in the Capital and other cities, as well as events taking place around the globe, the need for more mental health professionals is far too important to let slide. This is not an issue which only affects a handful of Kiwis, and not one which will be going away any time soon. The demand for these services has increased and will continue to do so. There are large amounts of students wanting to train, but without funding in the areas of education and internships, they will not be able to fill the spaces needed to meet demand.
“It’s not good enough that we’re scared to enter our professions, and it’s not good enough that people can’t see a mental health professional.”
This is an issue that directly affects us all, whether we’re a student in training, an individual seeking support, or just someone who’s struggling at the moment. The Government have seen the petition, they know of the crisis, and they know that we want something to be done about it. Now is the time for them to come forward and tell us where they’re planning on going next. The lack of information and communication on the subject is a let down. We deserve for the concerns raised to be answered, to be told how they plan on handling this situation, and if they intend to address the calls to action they were given six months ago.
Whilst the petition was presented last year, you can still show your support by going to https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/increase-the-psychologist-workforce and signing.
Over 15,000 people have signed, add your voice to theirs. Signing and bringing attention back to the petition and back to this issue will help to show the Government just how much we care about it.
And hopefully, it’ll encourage them to come forward and shed some light as to how they plan on helping the psychology workforce and anyone in need of it’s services.