The Australian government, along with all state and territory governments, have developed and endorsed a plan to build Australia’s mental health workforce. The 10-year National Mental Health Workforce Strategy will guide coordinated action over the next decade to ensure Australians can get the mental healthcare they need where and when they need it.
 
The government has funded some priority initiatives under the Strategy as part of the $586.9 million investment in mental health and suicide prevention in the 2023-24 Budget. This includes $91.3 million to address acute bottlenecks in the psychology training pipeline, including creating 500 new postgraduate psychology places; funding 500 one-year internships for provisional psychologists; providing 2,000 fully subsidised supervisor training places, including 1,000 refresher places; and redesigning psychology higher education pathways to support longer term reform. 

$17.8 million is also being invested to upskill the broader health workforce in mental health, including undergraduate nurses, midwives and allied health students, as well as develop national standards for counsellors and psychotherapists.
 
This builds on other mental health workforce investments, including $18.3 million for the National Mental Health Pathways to Practice Programme Pilot; and $32 million for the continuation of National Workforce Centre for Child Mental Health.