Work ’26

“If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.”  Michelangelo Buonarroti

This week, I am looking at my worth and the value of the work that I bring to my clients.  The many years of study, both Bachelor and Master level to get where I am today.  Then I add in all the professional development and courses over the years.  The various therapies that I have sat in and learnt. 

As an accredited mental health social worker, my governing body requests that I attend a minimum of 50 hours of continuing professional development each financial year.  This is paid by me and includes a minimum of 10 hours supervision and 15 hours of focused psychological therapy and other criteria. 

Then I also need to pay my rental agreement, electricity, insurances and all the business expenses.  It all adds up and is taken out of my income.

When I fist moved into private practice after working in public health for many years, the idea of being paid for service was quite foreign to me.  My services in the past had been fully subsidised by various income streams to the organisation, this was passed onto the clients.  Working out a fee for very difficult and it took me quite some time to get my head around this.

When COVID19 struck, I decide that I needed a more public presence and built a website and organised Telehealth options.  As a mental health professional, I felt the need to be transparent about my fee and listed this on the website, in case prospective clients booked online without the discussion of fees by booking directly with me.  Whilst I am not registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Apra), I follow their guidelines to ensure that I work in a similar manner to other mental health professionals.  Note: social workers are not eligible for registration with Apra currently.

In recent times, I have been challenged by other health professionals as to what I should charge their clients, and I find this quite surprising as I do not have any input to their salary and/or fees for their clients.  This has been from professionals from the private and public sector.  In all occasions, the client has been advised by the other professional about what I should do and/or charge.  One of the clients had spoken to me directly prior to attending the session and was advised of the fee.  The story changed on the day, and we had to have the awkward discussion around the fee for service. 

This conversation continues in the public arena now with the debate currently on the NDIS and their rates of service.  Once again, those of us who are qualified are being told what we should or should not charge for services provided.