Mental Health

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The South East Alliance of General Practice (Brisbane) is committed to improving the mental health of patients within our area.  The Alliance is involved in various mental health initiatives including the Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care Initiative, Access to Psychological Services Project and Shared Care.

For more information about the Mental Health Initiatives please contact the Mental Health Program Officer at the Alliance.

Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care Initiative (BOiMHCI)
Princess Alexandra Mental Health Service District Shared Care
 

Better Access Mental Health Care

On 1 November 2006 the Government delivered a major part of the COAG mental health package with the introduction of important new Medicare items to provide better and more affordable mental health care. 

These new Medicare services promote a team approach to mental health care, with general practitioners encouraged to work with psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, and other allied mental health professionals to increase the availability of care.  Under the changes, Medicare rebates are available for GPs to provide early intervention, assessment and management of patients with mental disorders as part of a GP Mental Health Care Plan. A new GP Mental Health Care Consultation item is also available for GPs to provide continuing management of patients with mental disorders.

Medicare items are available to provide rebates for psychological assessment and therapy services provided by clinical psychologists. Medicare items also cover the provision of focussed psychological strategies by appropriately trained allied mental health professionals, including psychologists, occupational therapists and social workers.

For more information about Better Access please visit:


SEA-GP (Brisbane) GP Mental Health Care Plan Electronic Template (for Medical Director):

Instructions for installing on Medical Director:
Right Click on template GP Mental Health Care Plan Template
Save Target as Rich Text Format (RTF) on Desktop
Open Medical Director Letter Writer
Open New, Blank Template
Go File, Import and identify the target on your desktop
Save as template and use a recognisable name
Once downloaded, DO NOT OPEN in Microsoft Word as this will corrupt the template

 Other GP Mental Health Care Plan/Review Electronic Templates available:


Locating a Mental Health Professional
Follow the links below to locate a Psychologist, Social Worker or Occupational Therapist to proivde treatment to your patients as part of the Better Access to Mental Health Care Initiative.


To view the presentations from the BSDGP and SEA-GP (Brisbane) Mental Health Information Session held on 15 November 2006, please click on the links below:

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Better Outcomes in mental health care

Background

Historically there have been barriers to delivery of quality mental health care in general practice, for example inadequate mental health education and training and limited referral pathways. Through the Better Outcomes in mental Health care initiative these have begun to be addressed in a structured and systematic way. This program is funded through the Australian Government Department of Health and Aging, and to date there has been an investment of $120.4 million in this highly successful initiative.

  • Education and training for GPs - to familiarise GPs with the initiative and to increase the mental health skills

  • The 3 Step Mental Health Process - a Service Incentive Payment (SIP) is provided to encourage effective management of mental health problems by GPs through a 3 Step Mental Health Process that includes an assessment, a mental health plan and a review

  • Focussed Psychological Strategies - to encourage appropriately trained GPs to provide evidence based focused psychological strategies (FPS) through the provision of Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) rebates

  • Access to Allied Psychological Services (ATAPS) - to enable GPs to access psychological and other allied health services to support their patients with mental health disorders

  • Access to Psychiatrist Support - to better enable psychiatrists and GPs to participate in case conferencing and for psychiatrists to provide emergency advice to support GPs.

Perinatal Depression - Just Speak Up


Impact of Better Access on Better Outcomes

The Australian Government will continue to honour its commitment to supporting the key components of BOIMHC, including education and training for GPs, appropriate remuneration of GPs for delivery of Focussed Psychological Strategies, support from psychiatrists, and access to allied health services. 

  • The increased range of referral pathways under Better Access complements the range of initiatives funded under the Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care Program (BOIMHC).

  • The Access to Psychological Services (ATAPS) component will continue through SEA-GP (Brisbane) to offer an alternative referral pathway for GPs.

  • The 3 Step Mental Health Process incentive payment and associated MBS trigger items will be withdrawn from 1 May 2007.

  • Access by appropriately trained GPs to MBS items for the delivery of Focussed Psychological Strategies will continue.

  • The GP Psych Support Service will also continue to provide a network for GPs to seek patient management advice from a psychiatrist within 24 hours.

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PA Mental Health Service

The South East Alliance of General Practice (Brisbane) works together with Brisbane South Division of General Practice and the Princess Alexandra Mental Health Services to promote Mental Health Shared Care.  The 3 organisations are working together to develop and implement a shared care approach to treatment.

Princess Alexandra Mental Health Service Information and Resources: 

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Mental Health Nurse Incentive Program

The Australian Government has provided funding of $191.6 million over five years from July 2007 through the Mental Health Nurses Incentive Program. This program provides a non-MBS incentive payment to general practices, private psychiatrist services and other appropriate community providers to engage or retain mental health nurses to assist in the provision of coordinated clinical care for people, in the community, with severe mental health disorders.

What services will be provided?
Mental Health Nurses engaged under this initiative will provide a suite of services that will enhance continuity of care and be tailored to each patient’s needs. Services will include:

  • A periodic review of the patient’s mental state.

  • Medication monitoring and management.

  • Provision of information about physical healthcare to clients.

  • Improving patient links to other health professionals and clinical service providers including arranging access to interventions from psychiatrists and allied health professionals when required (including Better Access and ATAPS).

  • Close liaison with family and carers as appropriate(including family interventions if needed).

  • Provision of patient services in a range of settings, such as in clinics or patients’ homes.

What are the benefits for patients?
Benefits to patients receiving a mental health nursing service under this initiative include:

  •  Access to clinical care by a mental health nurse in the community setting.

  • Continuity of care provided by a single person coordinating both clinical care and co-ordination with other agencies and service providers.

  • Provision of multidisciplinary, community based care through one general practice.

  • additional assistance with medication.

How are these services funded?
Payments to eligible organisations will be administered by Medicare Australia quarterly and will be based on the number of sessions that the mental health nurse is engaged for (minimum 2 individual patients per 3.5hr session per week and a maximum ten sessions per week)

Payments of $240.00 (GST inclusive) per session, inclusive of all on-costs and overheads associated with engaging a mental health nurse, are available through this initiative.

Participating organisations are able to apply for establishment funding under this Program of up to $10,000 (GST free). Establishment payments are triggered by evidence of engagement of a mental health nurse and are available to an organisation once only, irrespective of the number of nurses engaged. Organisations that engage a mental health nurse five or more sessions a week qualify for a $10,000 establishment payment, while those that engage a mental health nurse for less than five sesions qualify for a $5,000 payment.

For services in rural and remote areas of Australia, a loading of 25% will be applied to the sessional payment to take into account factors such as the difficulty of engaging mental health nurses and the increased traveling distances for mental health nurses to attend and support patients in rural and remote locations. Rural and remote services are those located in Very Remote, Remote and Outer Regional areas as defined by the Australian Standard Geographic Classification (ASGC) remoteness classification.

Recruiting Mental Health Nurses
From 31st December 2008 eligible mental health nurses need to be credentialed by the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses. Until 31st December 2008, interim arrangements will apply. Under these arrangements, eligible organisations can engage registered nurses with current registration who have obtained, or are working towards obtaining, specialist qualifications in mental health, such as a Graduate Diploma in Mental Health Nursing or a Masters in Mental Health Nursing, and 3 years recent experience in mental health nursing

Advice on recruiting mental health nurses can be obtained from the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses www.acmhn.org. 

For assistance in finding a Mental Health Nurse contact the Mental Health Program Officer at SEA-GP (Brisbane)

Eligibility
For information and definitions of eligibility criteria for organisations, mental health nurses and patients, visit: www.health.gov.au/coagmentalhealth and follow the links

Further information
For factsheets, guidelines and application forms please visit: Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing

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RIBS

The Resiliency in Bayside Schools Project (RIBS) is a mental health promotion project coordinated by a partnership of schools, mental health, and community organisations in the Bayside area, with SEA-GP (Brisbane) participating as the lead agency. This three year project is funded by Queensland Health through the Connecting Healthcare in Communities Initiative.

The focus areas of the project are:

  • To strengthen relationships and improve networks between primary health care, mental health services, community organisations, and school communities to promote best practice in mental health care

  • To support implementation of an evidence based mental health resiliency framework in local state high schools, with a focus on sustainability and utilising a whole school approach

  • To develop a website resource with information about organisations providing services to young people in the Bayside area.


The six schools actively involved in the project are:

  • Victoria Point State High School

  • Alexandra Hills State High School

  • Wynnum State High School

  • Wellington Point State High School

  • Brisbane Bayside State College  

  • Cleveland District State High School


Each of these schools has chosen to use the MindMatters framework for mental health and wellbeing. More information about MindMatters is available here.

Our project partners are:

  • Department of Education, Training and the Arts

  • Queensland Health

  • BABI Youth and Family Support

  • In-SYNC


For more information about the RIBS Project, please contact Olivia Fisher at the Alliance, or read the quarterly RIBS Newsletter (under resources).

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RIBS Summary

RIBS Newsletters:


Media Releases:


RIBS in the Media:


RIBS Presentations:

  • Australian Psychological Society
    The APS is the largest professional association for psychologists in . The APS is committed to advancing psychology as a discipline and profession.
  • Black Dog Institute
    Info on depression and Bipolar causes, treatments, online self-assessment tools, section for consumers & carers, research studies, professional education & training programs, & materials for clinicians.
  • Healthinsite
    You will find a wide range of up-to-date and quality assessed information on important health topics.
  • Mental Health Council of Australia
    MHCA is the independent, national representative network of organisations and individuals committed to achieving better mental health for everyone in .
  • Mental Health and Well Being
    The website of the Mental Health and Special Programs Branch Commonwealth of Australia Department of Health and Ageing.
  • Multicultural Mental Health Australia
    MMHA provides national leadership in mental health and suicide prevention for Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse CALD) backgrounds.