S.TRUEMAN PhD THESIS 2016

27

compared to just 0.88% in remote and very remote areas; of this proportion, less than 1% work in private practice. Most remote psychologists work in schools or for not-for-profit (NFP) organisations (Australian Psychological Society, 2011). Even if all remote psychologists worked in private practice (which they do not), based on 2012 population figures (525,020 living in remote or very remote areas), this equates to an average of 1 psychologist per 2,652 people. Table 1.9 Number of Psychologists by Remoteness Classification and FTE per 100,000 population in 2012 (Source: Health Workforce Australia, Allied Health Practitioners, AIHW, 2013)

Major Cities

Inner Regional Outer Regional

Remote/ Very Remote

Number

18,385

2,766

1,022

198 34.0

FTE per 100,000 population

98.6

57.4

44.6

1.6.9.4 Occupational therapists Occupational therapists are included in this section for two reasons. First, an increasing response to the shortage of mental health nurses in community mental health teams in metropolitan areas has been for occupational therapists to be recruited into case manager roles (historically a mental health nursing role). Second, occupational therapists have a role in the acute mental health sector, as they often undertake pre-discharge assessments of patients; for example, they might undertake a three-step assessment of budgeting, shopping and then cooking to ensure that a ‘low-functioning’ patient has the basic skills to feed themselves. Occupational therapists are increasingly becoming