Mental Health

What is the Division’s mental health program?
The Division's mental health program comprises a number of components. It is funded under a range of Federal and State initiatives.

Access to Allied Health Services (ATAPS)
The Division began its Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care (BOiMHC) program in July 2002 with GP familiarisation training in the Federal Government’s Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care initiative. Later it applied successfully for funding to pilot an Access to Allied Health Services project, another component of the initiative. The pilot was implemented with Northeast Health Wangaratta in 2003, which brought State funding to the partnership from the Victorian Government’s Primary Mental Health & Early Intervention initiative.

Award winning partnership with Northeast Health Wangaratta
The partnership between the Division and Northeast Health Wangaratta is an innovative service model which has delivered excellent outcomes to patients. The model was Highly Commended in the Victorian Public Healthcare Awards 2007.

Northeast Health contributes State funding, service support and line management of a team of mental health professionals while the Division brings Commonwealth funding, GP education and support, and program management. The result, the Integrated Primary Mental Health Service, provides co located mental clinicians to 26 general practices in North East Victoria. This team of Mental Health professionals was recently increased by 3 FTE with funding from Mental Health Services in Rural and Remote Areas Measure. This has meant an increase in the number of services available to communities in the Division catchment.

Since its inception in June 2003 the Integrated Primary Mental Health Service to January 2008 has provided 3,444 new patient assessments and follow up, with an average of 4 services provided to each patient referred. Approximately 14,900 clinical sessions were provided to patients. Average patient outcomes showed significant improvement in symptoms and quality of life, measured by the HoNOS outcome tool and the Behaviour & Symptom Identification Score. Patients recorded very high levels of satisfaction with the service provided, as measured by consumer satisfactions they are asked to fill in on completion of their care.

How does the program benefit North East Victorian GPs?
General Practitioners can refer patients to the Integrated Primary Mental Health Service by completing a Mental Health Plan. The mental health clinician allocated to the practice is co located, that is they generally consult from the practice or close by. There are many benefits to co location, including access for patients unable to travel, on site education, support for and feedback to GPs and practice staff, primary and secondary consultation with Integrated Primary Mental Health Service psychiatrists, and access to mental health resources.