Mental Health Care Plans for Australian GPs

Mental health care plans, known formally as Mental Health Treatment Plans (MHTPs) under the Better Access initiative, are a substantial component of general practice in Australia. The documentation requirements are specific, the clinical content is sensitive, and the administrative context changed materially on 1 November 2025.

This article covers the current framework, the documentation requirements, and how Lyrebird supports MHTP drafting.

The Better Access Framework

Mental Health Treatment Plans under the Better Access initiative give Medicare-eligible patients access to a set number of psychology sessions per calendar year, typically delivered by psychologists, mental health social workers, or occupational therapists with mental health training.

The MHTP is prepared by a GP or prescribed medical practitioner (PMP) and serves as both the clinical management plan and the administrative basis for referral to allied mental health clinicians. The initiative has been in place since 1 November 2006.

The 1 November 2025 MBS Changes

On 1 November 2025, substantial changes to Better Access MBS items took effect, following recommendations from the independent 2022 Better Access Evaluation conducted by the University of Melbourne. The key changes:

Preparation items retained. Items 2700, 2701, 2715, and 2717 remain available for preparing an MHTP, along with their video telehealth equivalents (92112, 92113, 92114). These are time-tiered, with 2715 and 2717 being the higher-rebate items available to GPs who have completed Mental Health Skills Training (MHST) accredited by the General Practice Mental Health Standards Collaboration (GPMHSC).

Review items removed. The previous Review and Consultation items specific to MHTPs (2712, 2713) were removed from the MBS. Review of an MHTP and ongoing management of a patient's mental health condition now use time-tiered general attendance items (such as 23, 36, 44 for in-person, or their telehealth equivalents). This gives GPs more flexibility to match consult time to clinical need, without being constrained by MHTP-specific review item requirements.

MyMedicare and usual practitioner linkage. Preparation items are only payable when the MHTP is linked to the patient's MyMedicare-registered practice or their usual medical practitioner. A GP is considered a patient's usual medical practitioner if they have provided the majority of the patient's care over the previous 12 months or will provide the majority over the next 12 months.

MHTP as a living document. Services Australia explicitly describes an MHTP as a living document to be updated as clinical needs change. A new plan should not be prepared within 12 months of a previous plan unless exceptional circumstances exist. Reviews should not occur more than once every three months, or within four weeks of an MHTP being prepared, unless there are exceptional circumstances. Typically no more than two reviews per calendar year is required.

For authoritative current detail, consult MBS Online, the Services Australia MBS billing rules for mental health services, and the RACGP's guidance on the 1 November 2025 changes.

What an MHTP Contains

Five elements recur across published guidance on MHTP structure, aligned with the record-keeping expectations set by RACGP Standards Criterion C7.1 and the AHPRA shared Code of conduct.

Current mental health assessment. Presenting concerns, relevant history, mental state examination findings, and, where applicable, the outcome of standardised measures such as the K10, PHQ-9, GAD-7, or DASS-21.

Diagnosis or provisional diagnosis. The working diagnosis using DSM or ICD classification where appropriate, with acknowledgement of diagnostic uncertainty where relevant.

Goals of treatment. The clinical and functional goals the plan is designed to work towards, expressed in a form that can be reviewed at the point of plan review.

Management plan. The components of treatment being provided by the GP (medication, monitoring, general support), referred to allied mental health (psychology, social work, occupational therapy), or otherwise (specialist psychiatric referral where needed).

Review schedule. When the plan will be reviewed, what will be assessed, and any specific measures to be repeated at review.

Sensitivity Considerations Specific to Mental Health Consultations

Mental health consultations warrant more deliberate attention to AI scribe consent than many other consultation types. Three considerations matter in particular.

The content of the consultation is often sensitive, and patients vary in their comfort with its being processed by an AI tool. The consent conversation should be clear, and the patient should be aware they can decline without it affecting their care. The TGA's August 2025 guidance on digital scribes reinforces the general expectation of documented informed consent.

Some mental health presentations, including disclosures of self-harm, suicidal ideation, or family violence, warrant a particularly considered approach. In some consultations, the clinician may reasonably decide that an AI scribe is not appropriate for the consultation at all.

The scribe can be turned off for an individual consultation without changing the default for the remainder of the day. This is a feature, not a workaround, and using it selectively for sensitive consults is consistent with good clinical judgment.

How Lyrebird Handles Mental Health Care Plans

Lyrebird generates MHTP drafts from the consult content using a care-plan-specific template. The workflow is the same as other care plan types: the consultation proceeds as normal with the scribe running (assuming consent is confirmed), and Lyrebird organises the clinical content into the MHTP structure.

For Bp Premier users, the MHTP writes back to the patient record alongside the consultation note through the Best Practice integration.

Standardised measures such as K10 scores, PHQ-9 totals, DASS-21 subscales, and similar can be captured through dictation if they are administered during the consultation, and they are included in the MHTP draft. Lyrebird Scribe captures what is said during the consult; for instruments administered separately on paper or through a form, the clinician dictates or types the scores into the note.

Evidence from the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service evaluation, a 16-week trial across 7,499 consultations and 21 specialties, found Lyrebird-generated notes outperformed traditional notes on the PDQI-9 validated quality framework. The full study is published in BMC Health Services Research (2025).

Avant's guidance on AI for medical documentation applies with particular weight to mental health documentation: the AI-generated plan is a draft, and the clinician remains responsible for accuracy, for the appropriateness of the content being recorded, and for reviewing the plan before sign-off.

Template Customisation

GPs who frequently produce MHTPs typically develop a standard structure reflecting their preferred phrasing and level of detail. Lyrebird's template customisation captures this. The GCHHS lesson on optimising for reviewability identifies template adaptation as the factor most closely tied to sustained output quality.

Confidentiality and Patient Data Handling

Mental health clinical content is particularly sensitive, and the broader data handling considerations for AI scribes apply with particular weight. Lyrebird processes and stores all data on Australian servers, which means APP 8 offshore-transfer disclosure does not apply. The broader Australian Privacy Principles govern the processing of sensitive health information, and the per-consult consent logging provides an audit trail.

The Medical Board of Australia's Good medical practice code of conduct sets the general expectation that practitioners manage sensitive clinical information with appropriate discretion. Patients should be aware that the MHTP is shared with the allied mental health clinician as part of the referral, and this is a standard part of the Better Access framework rather than an AI-scribe-specific consideration.

Next Steps

To trial Lyrebird directly, book a demo. Lyrebird Free is available for free to Best Practice clinics.