Do I need a Mental Health Treatment Plan to see a psychologist for anxiety?

By Matthew Hallam, Registered Psychologist (AHPRA PSY0002471369). 4 min read. Published 13 May 2026. Last reviewed 13 May 2026. Next review 13 May 2027.

No. You don't need a Mental Health Treatment Plan to see a psychologist. You can book an appointment directly. A Mental Health Treatment Plan is a referral from your GP that unlocks Medicare rebates on a set number of psychology sessions per calendar year. Without one, you pay the full session fee. With one, Medicare pays back part of that fee. The plan is worth getting if you're going to be having more than a couple of sessions, because the rebate adds up over a course of therapy. It is not worth delaying psychology to wait for one, if waiting is the thing that stops you starting.

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What a Mental Health Treatment Plan actually is

A Mental Health Treatment Plan, often shortened to MHTP, is a document your GP prepares with you. It records that you and the GP have discussed your mental health, that the GP considers psychological treatment appropriate, and that they're referring you to a psychologist for a specific number of sessions. The plan is part of a Medicare scheme called Better Access, which subsidises mental health care delivered by eligible practitioners. The current structure allows up to ten individual sessions per calendar year, broken into an initial six sessions, followed by a GP review, then up to four further sessions (Services Australia, 2024).

The Better Access scheme has been independently evaluated. The most recent comprehensive evaluation found that the scheme delivers meaningful symptom reduction across a large proportion of users, though equity-of-access gaps remain in regional, lower-income, and Indigenous Australian populations (Pirkis et al., 2022). Better Access is the pathway through which the majority of Australians access psychology.

The plan itself doesn't cost anything beyond your GP appointment, which is bulk-billed at many clinics. The rebate it unlocks is the financial benefit.

How it works at this practice

At Equal Psychology, the standard session fee is $240. With a Mental Health Treatment Plan, Medicare rebates $98.95 of that, leaving an out-of-pocket cost of $141.05 per session. A $20 surcharge applies to Saturday sessions and to weekday sessions starting at or after 5pm, reflecting the additional cost of after-hours availability.

Over a full course of ten sessions, the rebate is just under a thousand dollars. That's a meaningful difference for most people, which is why the MHTP is generally worth getting.

To get one, the steps are: book a longer appointment with your GP (most GP clinics ask for a double appointment for mental health planning), talk through what's been going on, and ask the GP for a Mental Health Treatment Plan and a referral. The GP will write the plan, send a copy to the psychologist, and provide you with the rebate information. You can then book your psychology session, or if you've already booked, the referral simply applies from that point onwards.

A few practical points

A Mental Health Treatment Plan is for individual psychology sessions. There is a separate Medicare item for group therapy, with its own session cap, and there are some related items (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health items, eating disorder management plans) that work differently.

The ten-session cap is per calendar year, not per twelve-month period. The count resets on 1 January. If you start in October, the count of sessions for that year applies to October, November, December, and the new allocation begins in January.

You don't have to use all ten sessions. Some people see a psychologist for three or four sessions and that's enough for what they came to do. The plan is an entitlement, not an obligation.

If your situation is more complex, or the ten sessions in a calendar year is not enough, your GP and psychologist can discuss other pathways, including private health cover, longer-term referrals to psychiatry, or specific schemes such as TAC, WorkCover, NDIS, and Support at Home. The most useful conversation to have, if any of these might apply, is with your GP first.

A Mental Health Treatment Plan is a Medicare mechanism, not a clinical requirement. It changes what you pay, not whether you can see a psychologist. The decision about whether to start, and with whom, is yours. If the MHTP question has been the reason you've been delaying, the practical answer is: it's a useful step, but it's not the gate. You can book a Meet and Greet to see if this practice is the right fit before sorting out the referral, or you can speak to your GP first and bring the plan to your first session. Either order works.

General information only. This page is general psychoeducation, not a clinical assessment, diagnosis, or treatment. Reading it does not establish a treating relationship. If you would like personalised support, please book a Meet and Greet or speak with your GP. If you are in immediate danger, call 000, or call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

To talk this through with a psychologist, you can book a Meet and Greet: free · 15 minutes · online or in-person · no obligation. Book a Meet and Greet.