Mudgee Psychology and the Mid-Western Regional Council this week welcomed a new psychologist-in-training with the aim of improving accessibility to mental health services in the region.
Mudgee local Amy Penney joined the private practice after striking a deal with principal psychologist, Alison Nipperess, to help reduce Ms Nipperess’ extensive waiting lists in return for her supervision of Ms Penney’s two-year internship.
Ms Penney’s position was confirmed with the help of $1000 in funding from council after she applied for financial support two months ago.
“It’s very difficult to complete your internship, which is required for registration, because it’s expensive and a big ask of the supervisor to supervise you because there’s a lot of work involved, so we thought the council might help us out,” Ms Penney said.
“I think they gave me the maximum limit for a personal donation, which I’m so appreciative for, and the fact it’s already been spent on one course shows how much it was needed.”
The funding will allow Ms Penney to complete a four-day cognitive behaviour therapy course as well as a one-day seminar on engaging adolescents in Sydney.
The first course includes fundamental skills for counselling, and Ms Nipperess said she hoped Ms Penney would put what she learns from the second seminar into practice in the local area.
“When I’m working with a long list of children through to adults I get a bit stretched, so there’s a gap here as far as support for adolescents that I’m hoping Amy might be able to assist in filling,” Ms Nipperess said.
Ms Nipperess said Ms Penney would hopefully also be able to help her with research, putting together some programs for the community and in seeing some clients – all tasks which she has been unsuccessfully seeking another psychologist to assist her with for the last 18 months.
“We haven’t had any luck with bringing anyone new to the region, so when Amy approached us we were both a bit anxious because it’s a big project, there’s a lot for her to learn and from a business perspective we need funding to do so,” Ms Nipperess said.
“But there’s absolutely a need for more psychologists in the area and Amy’s here to stay, so in terms of an investment of our time, energy and efforts to get her trained up – from a long term view of trying to fill that gap in Mudgee – it’s well worth it.”
Both Ms Penney and Ms Nipperess are continuing to seek additional funding for their reciprocal partnership, noting that any further support “would be really fantastic”.
In the meantime however, Ms Penney said she can’t wait to begin work.
“I’ve done four years of study, and it’s something that I’ve been interested in for a long time now so I’m very excited to put my learning into practice here,” she said.
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