You do not need to have a Mental Health Care Plan (MHCP) and GP referral to access our services. However, without a GP referral you will be required to pay the full fee per 50-minute therapy appointment. With a MHCP and GP referral you can access up to 10 sessions per calendar year (January to December) that attracts a Medicare rebate to cover a portion of the appointment costs.
Medicare generally does not provide rebates for testing/assessments with the exception for Autism Spectrum assessments. If you have a GP or Paediatrician referral you may be eligible for a rebate of $93.35 per assessment.
The first step it to contact your GP and schedule an appointment to complete a MHCP. Only certain mental health presentations are eligible for a MHCP. Your GP will help determine your eligibility.
When we send you our Intake forms we have a section that allows you to upload your MHCP and GP referral letter directly to us (a photo of these documents is acceptable. Our contact page on this website also allows you to upload a document and send it directly to us. Alternatively, please ask your GP clinic if they can email us a copy of your documents to us at owenandersonpsychology@gmail.com
We are often with clients and are unable to attend to walk-in enquiries during these times. We request that all enquires be directed to us via our email or phone contacts.
Please contact us via this website, email us at owenandersonpsychology@gmail.com, or phone us on 0493 522 041 to request to complete our Intake.
Standard consultations are 50-minutes. During your initial appointment your psychologist will give you an indication of the proposed length of treatment and frequency of appointments.
Yes! Our psychologists provide evening appointments Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays.
Our psychologists have undergone extensive training and have years of experience behind them to qualify them to provide high-quality mental health care.
A Clinical Psychologist has completed a six-year university degree and an additional two-years of supervised practical training to receive an endorsement in Clinical Psychology.
A Registered Psychologist has completed a four-year university degree and an additional post-graduate university degree OR a minimum of two years of supervised practical training.
These differences in training and qualifications means Clinical and Registered psychologist attract different Medicare Rebates. We have structured our fees to reflect this. Our Clinical Psychologist is also able to provide a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder following completion of a comprehensive assessment.
Where possible, we attempt to accommodate individual requests to see the psychologist of their choice. However, this is not always possible due to each psychologist's availability at the time of referral, and each psychologists area of expertise that is the best for your presenting issue.
We are currently not accepting referrals for children and adolescents for therapy.
We are a small practice covering a large area and unfortunately only occasionally have capacity to see children and adolescents for therapy. We encourage you to please speak to your GP about other referral options.
The Australian Psychological Society recommend that psychologists charge a fee of $300 per 50-minute consultation. Our fees are considerably lower than this recommendation as we want our services to be accessible for a wider proportion of our community. Unfortunately we do not bulk-bill appointments due to needing to cover the increasing costs of running our small practice.
Psychological testing can involve a combination of;
This process can take 10+ hours at times, including scoring and interpretation of measures, and report writing. Once completed, a Feedback Session will be scheduled to go through the testing results and report with your psychologist. We do not release Psychological Reports without this Feedback session for ethical reasons.
The purpose of seeking psychological testing varies from one person to the next, and will depend on the referral question or reason for seeking support. Psychological testing can result in a formal diagnosis and access to funded supports in schools or the community (i.e. NDIS), however this is not guaranteed depending on a multitude of factors. In the absence of a diagnosis testing can still provide very useful and often essential information about an individual and their thinking and academic skills including areas of strengths and difficulties, a person's ability to adapt and function independently (according to age and stage of development) in the community, and what supports might be needed if there are significant difficulties identified. At times psychological testing can also rule out a diagnosis altogether.
You do not have to have a suspected mental health disorder to seek out testing. However, your psychologist will still need to discuss with you what the purpose of testing is for, to make sure it is appropriate to proceed (for example, we do not provide testing for court or legal purposes). Some people find testing useful to understand their areas of cognitive and academic strengths and weaknesses, including those who seem to be excelling academically or seem ‘gifted’ in certain areas.
Some examples of possible diagnoses as a result of formal testing can include neurodevelopmental disorders such as intellectual disability, specific learning disorders, ADHD and Autism Spectrum as well as emotion and mood-based disorders.
We are now offering assessments for Autism Spectrum Disorder. For a diagnosis of Autism the following is the gold standard in assessment;
1. Speech and Language Assessment via a Speech Pathologist
2. Cognitive and Academic Assessment by a Clinical Psychologist to rule out other disorders. A Behavioural Assessment is recommended where ADHD is also suspected. (we provide these assessments)
3. ADOS (Autism Spectrum Specific Assessment) by a Clinical Psychologist. (we provide this assessment)
4. And a review by either a Paediatrician or Psychiatrist
Although not essential for diagnosis, an occupational therapist can also help to identify any sensory sensitives and a Sensory Profile.
We require a completed Speech and Language Assessment and review and referral by a Paediatrician (or GP, as we understand how difficult it can be to access a Paediatrician) before we can commence an Autism Spectrum assessment.
When it comes to psychological testing, we can conduct our interviews and feedback sessions either in-person or via telehealth (video) at our consulting room. We can complete the formal testing component at school with the child/young person. We find this can be more comfortable for students rather than taking them out of school to an office-type location for testing. However, we do also complete testing at our consulting room in Hamilton VIC. Depending on our capacity and the needs of the child/young person, we can travel up to an hour from Hamilton (i.e. Warrnambool, Portland) to complete testing however this does attract a travel fee.
Unfortunately most types of psychological testing that we provide is not currently funded by Medicare so you do not need a Mental Health Care Plan from your GP.
However, Autism Spectrum assessments can attract a small rebate of $93.35 when referred by a GP or Paediatrician.
Don't worry you are not alone! Psychological testing is not something most people are familiar with. If unsure, it is best to speak with your child’s teachers or the well-being representative who are more familiar with testing and how it can support your child. GP’s, Paediatricians and Psychiatrists are also excellent resources if you are already linked in with these services. We also welcome you to call us or email us with any questions to help you make your decision.
After an initial consultation with our psychologists if the decision is made that testing is not to go ahead, you will be charged only the consultation fee of $345. This includes preparation time and the consultation itself.
Although rare, if testing has already been commenced and is not able to be completed or you choose to discontinue testing part-way through, your psychologist will discuss with you an adjusted fee. For example, this would depend on reason for testing ceasing once commenced, tests already administered, psychologists billed time, and whether a report is still requested and able to be provided.
If you havn’t already, please email us with your name, your child/young person’s name and request our Intake Form. Once completed we will be in touch with the next steps!