Frequently Asked Questions

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As Talkback Psychology is a bulk billing telehealth practice, if you attend with a psychology referral letter from your GP (under your Mental Health Treatment Plan), there will be no fees for your first 10 appointments each calendar year, as the Medicare rebates cover the cost of the appointments. The 10 Medicare rebates 'renew' every calendar year on January 1st, and so you can access another set of bulk billed 10 appointments each new year. As your GP can only refer you for a maximum of 6 psychology appointments at a time, after your first 6 psychology appointments, you will need to visit the GP again for another psychology referral letter in order to access the remaining 4 bulk billed appointments each year. 

As Medicare only covers the cost of 10 appointments each year, any additional appointments per year with Talkback Psychology will have a private fee of $141 per appointment.

Please note that if you have already used Medicare rebates for sessions this year with another psychologist, that this will affect the number of appointments that you can access (e.g. 3/10 appointments with another psychologist during this year, leaves 7/10 appointments remaining for this year that you can access with Talkback Psychology).

Also, if you wish to arrange psychology appointments without a referral letter from your GP, the fee will also be $141 per appointment. 

The psychology referral letter and Mental Health Treatment Plan (MHTP) are written by your GP and allow you to access 10 Medicare rebated appointments per year. A copy of these can be provided to you by your treating GP.

Please note that it is not necessary to complete a formal plan review, Medicare item 2712 (e.g. “Reviewing a MHTP”) in order to re-refer a patient for further psychological treatment under Better Access, and that patients can also be re-referred by letter under other Medicare items, including item 2713 (“GP Mental Health Treatment Consultation”), or a standard consultation item. For further information, please refer to the relevant sections (including the ‘Number of Sessions’ subheading) of the “Medicare Benefits Schedule - Note AN.0.56 - GP Mental Health Treatment Items”.

Please email talkbackpsychology@gmail.com.

All appointments are 45-50 mins and are conducted by telehealth - video and phone.

Research has shown that psychological treatments delivered by telehealth are as effective as face-to-face therapy and improve access to psychological support by removing geographical barriers.

• Results of a 2020 study of 4336 therapy attendees found that there were no differences between outcomes of mental health services delivered via videoconference and therapy delivered in-person. These results were obtained across a range of psychological problems and across a range of outcome measures. 
• This is consistent with previous research that has found no difference in outcome between telehealth and in-person therapy for adults, adolescents and children treated for depression, anxiety, trauma, eating problems, and substance abuse. 

Therapy via telehealth is generally not suitable for crisis situations where there is an imminent risk of self-harm. For urgent mental health crisis assistance, please call 000 or present to the emergency department of your nearest hospital. Additional phone lines that offer immediate mental health crisis assistance include the Mental Health Access Line – 1800 011 511, Lifeline – 13 11 14 and Beyond Blue – 1300 224 636.

You may choose to have a video appointment where you see each other in a virtual face-to-face setting (similar to Skype/FaceTime).

You will receive a video link on the morning of your appointment via email. Click on the link to join the virtual waiting room at the time of your appointment and your psychologist will begin the session.

At the time of your appointment your psychologist will phone you on the number you have provided.