AMHSWs are highly trained and educated mental health professionals, meeting some of the highest standards of professional regulation in Australia. AMHSWs are one of the few designated allied health professional groups eligible to provide private mental health services to people with diagnosable mental health conditions or people ‘at risk’ of developing mental health conditions under the Commonwealth Medicare initiative. There are currently more than 2,200 AMHSWs working across major cities, regional, rural and remote regions. As a group of providers, AMHSWs are the second largest after the combined group of Clinical Psychologists and Registered Psychologists. 

AMHSWs work from a biopsychosocial,
whole-of-person perspective and their training provides an appreciation of the impact that social, environmental and cultural factors have on total health and wellbeing. 

Their person-in-environment approach (that is the bedrock of all social work education) makes AMHSWs experts in dealing with complexity. This is also akin to the National Disability Insurance Scheme framework of client centred capacity-building therapeutic inputs that AMHSWs also provide. AMHSWs work with people across the lifespan (including children, adults and older persons) and provide a unique contribution to the mental health space in their holistic approach to working with a person. The advanced training that is expected of an AMHSW prepares and provides them with the skills for working with people with very complex presentations and comorbidities. They have the skills and knowledge to assess and intervene around the impact of physical illness, specifically chronic and advanced chronic or terminal illness has on a person’s psychological wellbeing.