Dubbo residents suffering in silence are being promised access to a raft of information and advice when the Stepped Care approach to treating mental illness is launched nationally.
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Self-help through access to information is the first of four steps that aim to open the door to mental health treatment and stop patients falling “through the gaps” in the current fragmented and multi-funded system of care.
Pivotal to the new approach is co-operation and consultation between agencies and service providers to reduce duplication of services and ensure efficient use of “finite” resources provided by governments and private entities.
Mental health adviser for the Western NSW Primary Health Network (WNSW PHN) Raphael Chapman speaks confidently of the creation of “one mental health system” where “no one falls through the gaps and people get the right care at the right time”.
Mr Chapman reports that a “digital gateway” to Stepped Care may be operational in the new year through a “first contact” national phone number.
A series of four meetings is under way in Western NSW, each of them addressing one of the four steps with a view to identifying gaps and designing better services.
Step three, when “people may require brief individual therapy”, was the focus of a meeting in Dubbo this week of the Western NSW Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol Stepped Care Integration Planning Executive Group.
Led by the WNSW PHN and the Western and Far West local health districts, the group considered “more advanced technologies” such as phone apps to support face-to-face intervention.
The group has already covered step one and step two, when a person provides guidance on “information gathered in the first step”.
Soon it will tackle step four when “longer-term individual therapy or more complex therapy” is required.
Mr Chapman said Stepped Care offered a “clear pathway” for patients to follow and would ensure referrals to mental health services by the likes of GPs produced “an outcome”.