VMHPAA Spring Edition e-Newsletter

Spring Update from VMHPAA

VMHPAA Spring Edition e-Newsletter

As we move into spring, VMHPAA reflects on a season of steady progress, principled advocacy, and growing national engagement.

Over winter, the Association strengthened its voice across key policy conversations, including active engagement with state and federal representatives, formal submissions to national reviews, and continued leadership on the Draft National Standards for mental health practitioners. This work reflects our ongoing commitment to ensuring vocationally trained practitioners are recognised as essential contributors to Australia’s mental health system.

Spring also marks a renewed focus on what sits at the heart of effective mental health care: competence, ethical practice, lived and living experience, and access, particularly for regional and community-based services. Across our publications and member contributions, we continue to highlight practice-led innovation, peer-informed models, and culturally responsive approaches that meet people where they are.

This season, VMHPAA reaffirms its position that strong standards must be fair, independent, and competency-based, and that pathways into practice should expand access to care rather than restrict it. We remain committed to advocating for systems that protect the public, value vocational skill, and reflect the real-world diversity of Australia’s mental health workforce.

As spring invites renewal and growth, VMHPAA looks ahead to new partnerships, national conversations, and member-led initiatives that will further embed vocational practitioners as a vital part of Australia’s mental health landscape.

Thank you to our members, contributors, and partners for the care you deliver, the professionalism you embody, and the collective momentum you help build.

We are pleased to publish the Spring edition of the VMHPAA Quarterly e-Newsletter.

Please take the time to remain informed about the progress the VMHPAA is making with regard to our advocacy of diploma qualified counsellors and psychotherapists.

We hope you enjoy reading the articles which may be of interest to your or your patients.

Please ENJOY reading our second e-Newsletter HERE