Mental health professionals are concerned about a "dire" lack of services in parts of regional Western Australia after revelations some children are waiting a year to see a clinical psychologist.
Figures from WA Country Health tabled in Parliament last week showed how long primary school-aged children in the regions were waiting to get their first appointment with a clinical psychologist.
The Pilbara had the longest median wait time of 344 days, followed by 167 days in the Great Southern, 123.5 days in the Goldfields and 67 days in the Midwest.
Clinical psychologist Gabby Goodier spent five years in the Pilbara town of Wickham and said a lack of staff was to blame for the long waiting times.
She left the region in December and said as far as she was aware, there were now no private clinical psychologists in the Pilbara.
"I was the only clinical psychologist in private practice in the Pilbara, so I would have clients travelling from Port Hedland, Tom Price, Paraburdoo, just to see someone because there was no other service available there," Ms Goodier said.
"And it's the same in terms of the public health system, they didn't have clinical psychs on staff so they'd be flying them up.
Ms Goodier said 12-month wait lists at her private clinic were the norm and called on the state government to take more interest in regional health.
"What I've experienced as a clinician working in Perth, is that when I was in the hospital system, a lot of the children that we were seeing coming through who were really unwell were from the country.
"They didn't have the ability to access services and have the intervention when they truly needed it."
Ms Goodier said telling a child they had to wait a year to get help could cause "irreparable" damage and the longer children waited, the more help they would need.
"If you're really not OK and something has happened in your life and you are really struggling and you're told 'I can't help you', essentially, for a year, what does that do to someone?," she said.
"And what does that do to the parents who are trying their very best to be able to help support their child?
Ms Goodier said the workload was so high she decided to transition her business online to better manage the demand for her services.
Official government figures released last year revealed half of Australian children with mental illnesses were not getting timely professional help.
last week, the federal government announced a $206 million package to ensure young people with mental illnesses would receive access to extra support.
Headspace Pilbara area manager Samara Clark said early intervention was vital to avoid a "bottleneck" of young people needing services as they got older.
"There is so much research and knowledge out there that investment is needed on the ground within the community space - prevention, early intervention," they said.
"So we're able to manage the wellbeing of individuals as they get older and hopefully assist the majority of them to not require tertiary level support.
"There absolutely is responsibility held with government to be playing more in that space and that really equates to extra funding where it's needed."
McGowan worried, but says investment has been made
West Australian Premier Mark McGowan said wait times in the Pilbara did worry him, but demand for services would always outstrip supply.
"Mental health amongst schoolchildren is a big issue and making sure we have sufficient resources is important," he said.
"We committed in the state election to employing many more child psychologists in school and school chaplains so that program is rolling out.
"There is always going to be more demand than there is available services, but we're trying our best to provide additional services."
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