SWSPHN’s e-Mental Health Toolkit

SWSPHN’s e-Mental Health Toolkit

Alaya’s consultants were commissioned by South Western Sydney PHN (SWSPHN) to develop an e-Mental Health Toolkit for consumers, carers and PHN funded mental health services within the region.

For our first step, we reviewed available e-Mental Health interventions including telephone support, online chat support, peer forums, structured online interventions and mobile apps, categorising each on their suitability for different cohorts:

  • Adults
  • Children and young people
  • Parents and families
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
  • Culturally and Linguistically diverse (CALD)
  • LGBTIQ communities

Each intervention was assessed within the stepped care model framework, identifying interventions suitable for people with mild – moderate or moderate – severe mental illness.

We consulted the sector on their use and knowledge of e-Mental Health resources and platforms. Through clinicians providing input via face-to-face, teleconference or telephone interviews and an online survey, we identified barriers to clinicians adopting e-Mental Health resources as an adjunct to face-to-face interventions:

  • Clinician’s time, capacity and awareness of resource
  • Lack of skills, experience and confidence in using e-Mental Health interventions
  • Difficult to easily identify reputable, evidenced-based resources
  • Lack of cohort-specific resources.

We summarised our work to date in the e-Mental Health Scoping and Consultation Report for SWSPHN. Armed with this report, SWSPHN built the e-Mental Health Toolkit, a user-friendly online navigation resource for consumers, carers and the sector.

Image Credit: Marco Verch Professional Photographer and Speaker via Flickr Creative Commons

SWSPHN’s Clinical Governance Framework

SWSPHN’s Clinical Governance Framework

Clinical governance supports the standard and compliance of a health care organisation’s clinical performance to assure all stakeholders of the safety, quality and continuous improvements of the services provided. Consumers and partnerships are central to identifying safety and quality issues and the solutions that must be implemented.

South Western Sydney PHN (SWSPHN) funds mental health services within a stepped mental health framework, as well as delivers service intake, triage and allocation. It is critical that SWSPHN delivered these programs with robust clinical governance which embeds and monitors quality, safety and equity. SWSPHN engaged Alaya Partners to review the mental health program’s clinical governance.

Alaya interviewed stakeholders and conducted full review of existing clinical governance mechanisms using a gap analysis methodology. The gap analysis included:

  • Each program’s defined scope and service delivery guidelines and requirements
  • Current internal clinical governance mechanisms and processes including committees and councils
  • Any issues / gaps / foreseen risks that require mitigation through clear governance
  • Current data collections and audit processes

The gap analysis report presented recommendations to strengthen clinical governance across four core areas:

  • SWSPHN’s Program Governance
  • PHN Service Delivery – Intake and Allocations
  • Program Delivery for SWSPHN contractors
  • Consumers and Carers

Alaya’s consultants partnered with PHN staff across multiple business units to develop the SWSPHN Mental Health Clinical Governance Framework and an array of supporting processes, policies and procedures for internal staff and sub-contractors to implement across its mental health programs and services.

Image Credit: koalazymonkey via Flickr Creative Commons