Bushfire Response

National Bushfire Recovery Agency

The National Bushfire Recovery Agency will oversee a National Bushfire Recovery Fund which will support all recovery efforts across Australia over the next two years. The agency is based out of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Its website includes fact sheets with more details on the recovery efforts, where people can go to for support and key contacts for emergency assistance.

Round 1 – March 2020

• WoTL Kangaroo Island
• WoTL Cudlee Creek
• Kingston District Council
• Lifeline Broken Hill
• Adelaide Festival Centre
• Kangaroo Island Couch Choir

Round 2  - October 2020

• Mt Barker Community Centre
• Breakthrough Mental Health Research Foundation
• Charleston Tennis Club
• Yorketown Progress Association
• St Columba’s Memorial School

CSAPHN has commissioned local established service providers to provide immediate counselling and other mental health services to support the needs of people experiencing distress or trauma as a result of the South Australian bushfires, including emergency response personnel.

These services will be:

• Free of charge, offering up to ten mental health services to individuals, families and emergency personnel affected by bushfires.
• Delivered by appropriately qualified and trained service provider organisations and clinicians.
• Made accessible to individuals in those locations most impacted by the bushfires, including through pop up centres and recovery centres; and
• Provided on an outreach basis in the short to medium term to ensure access by communities most impacted by the bushfires.

Medicare benefits

From 17 January, you will be able to get Medicare benefits for up to 10 mental health treatment services if:

• your patients have been impacted by the 2019-20 bushfires
• your patient is the first responder or emergency management employee or volunteer who worked during the 2019-2020 bushfires.

No GP referral required

To make it as simple and fast as possible to access the new items, individuals do not need to have a GP referral or mental health treatment plan, but can seek appointments directly with suitable GPs, psychologists, and other eligible mental health professionals.

Sessions are available until 31 December 2021. They are in addition to the 10 psychological therapy sessions currently available under the existing Better Access Program.

The new Bushfire Recovery and telehealth Medicare items will apply to all Australians, including children, young people, adults, seniors, and frontline emergency personnel who were residents of, working in, or visiting a bushfire affected region.

The expanded telehealth Initiative will allow people in rural and remote areas affected by bushfires to receive Medicare rebated counselling and psychological support through video telehealth services. This will also allow eligible GPs to deliver mental health and wellbeing support via telehealth.