Mental Health Archives • Alaya Partners Australia

Mental Health & Hep C in General Practice

Alaya Partners has consulted with Gilead Sciences Inc. to deliver specialised training to general practice in the Murray PHN and Western Victoria PHN regions. This workshop expanded on Alaya’s successful GP training ‘Mental Health in General Practice – Simplifying the process in every day practice’ by incorporating atypical client cohorts at risk of/are experiencing mental illness or Hepatitis C.

Australia is leading the world in eliminating Hepatitis C (Hep C) and general practice continue to play a leading role in the treatment. Both Murray PHN and Western Victoria PHN regions have been identified as districts where treatment screening and linking to care is lagging. Similarly, referrals and information sent to Alaya’s clinical partner APMHA HealthCare indicate that further support and education in general practice around mental health was also warranted.

In response to this evidence, this workshop was developed and made available to GPS, GP Registrars, Practice Nurses and Practice Managers in order to improve overall diagnosis and referrals in Hepatitis C and Mental Health. This training focused on considering atypical Hep C and Mental Health cohorts at risk within a rural primary care environment (RACGP & CPD points were awarded). By redefining what today’s at risk populations may look like, the training aims to:

Highlight the importance of reviewing and updating processes and systems in a general practice setting to ensure optimal use of software and good clinical care
Provide an update of referral pathways for both Hep C and Mental Health
Arm general practitioners with relevant and appropriate resources.

After 9 sessions successful workshops, Alaya Partners and Gilead Science have continued to work collaboratively in the development of further resources, education and events for general practice.

Image Credit: GotCredit via Flickr Creative Commons

Caring for Carers

In 2019, Alaya’s Master Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) trainer rolled out a training program for carers, family and friends of clients in the Primary Mental Health Clinical Care Coordination (PMHCCC) Program. PMHCCC is a Murray PHN funded program supporting people with moderate to severe mental illness. The PHN funded this training to build the community’s capacity to support mental illness.

Alaya recommended the Standard MHFA as it teaches people how to support others experiencing mental health symptoms or a mental health crisis. The course included:

Evidence based information to guide effective support
Clear guides for signs and symptoms of mental illness
An action plan to guide community members
Manuals from BeyondBlue and MHFA Australia.

The community’s response to this training exceeded both Alaya’s and the PHN’s expectations. Within 2 weeks of our first advertisement, we had to close registrations and create a waiting list!

The need for this type of support is highlighted by the heartfelt gratitude expressed by carer participants:

“The benefits of [the course] will last a lifetime, and I have already used what I learned, many times, since finishing the course.”

“I like the idea of having people around Shepparton trained to connect with others when they are struggling and unable to ask for help. I think there is certain emotional processing techniques that can be learnt by everyone. You could take the burden off emergency and train carers and workers with these techniques.”

“Best thing I ever done. Helps me not only with supporting and assisting others but also with my own mental health. Great content.”

An unanticipated outcome from holding the course is that consumers began sending requests to participate, having heard from their loved ones how MHFA helped them to better understand how to articulate their needs and feelings to others.

Building a community’s capacity to better respond to and support people with a mental illness through courses like Mental Health First Aid is an investment for any organisation or community group – private sector employers, local councils, community groups and governments.

Contact us to discuss hosting a Mental Health First Aid course.

Image Credit: Push Doctor via Flickr Creative Commons

Building regional capacity to support mental illness

Alaya Partners has been funded by Murray PHN to build community and sector capacity to respond to mental illness effectively. This funding was distributed in response to this regions most recent population health needs analysis. The analysis indicated a need to improve service access and community understanding for clients living with more severe/complex mental illness. As an active provider of education and resources in the Goulburn Valley region, Alaya has responded by developing the following support:

Training packages to primary care practitioners. This aims to increase their confidence, skills and knowledge when working with clients with severe/complex mental illness.
Update and refine current medical software templates to ensure they support and guide primary care practitioners. This includes information to support clients with co-morbidity and tips to align care plans to recovery oriented principals
Implement consistent approaches to client assessment and support in the region. This was done by introducing the Recovery Star model to mental health clinicians working with severe/complex mental illness.
Deliver Mental Health First Aid training to support networks (carers, family and friends) of those clients living with mental illness. This aims to better equip them to understand and support their loved ones and/or clients.

Overall, the implementation of more effective support around general practice and primary care practitioners (as service advocates and referrers) has improve the accuracy of mental health pathway access for clients in Goulburn Valley. Working with primary care to improve medical software templates has also improved the comprehensiveness of Mental Health Treatment Plans conducted on behalf of clients.

Image Credit: Duncan Cunningham-Reid via Flickr Creative Commons

Creating Alaya House

In 2019, Alaya Partners and our clinical services partner, APMHA HealthCare, realised our vision to open a “bricks and mortar” mental health service in rural Victoria. People in Shepparton and surround areas can now access high quality mental health services from our beautifully appointed new clinic, Alaya House.

APMHA HealthCare’s established local mental health workforce that provides Murray PHN funded Psychological Therapy Services and Primary Mental Health Clinical Care Coordination (PTS / PMHCCC) are now stationed at Alaya House.

Alaya House’s 25-person capacity training room means Alaya Partners will be able to increase workforce and community training and education in the Murray PHN region. The Group Room (15 person capacity) is now accessible to APMHA HealthCare staff, giving staff the opportunity to provide comprehensive psychosocial education programs. Both areas of these areas are available for hired through Alaya Partners.

The Recovery Hub will provide a physical presence in the region, house our established local mental health workforce and expand our services to include GPs experienced in working with complex clients and NDIS services.

Alaya Partners, as part of a consortium with our clinical services partner, APMHA HealthCare and two pharmacotherapy prescribing GPs are the successful recipients of a 2019 Victorian Regional Readiness Fund grant. This grant will enable our consortium to:

Become an accredited NDIS provider
Upskill local NDIS providers in working with people with a psychosocial disability
Upskill our current workforce
Provide opportunity for our partnering GPs to work within NDIS

Alaya Partners will closely monitor and evaluate Alaya House in order to refine a business and service model for future roll-out in other regional areas where APMHA is contracted to provide services. Our consortium’s vision is to:

“Provide holistic, team-based, mental health stepped care for people experiencing mild mental illness through to psychosocial disability”.

This Victorian Government investment will position Alaya House as one stop shop for people with a mental illness or psychosocial disability and increase the region’s capacity to service NDIS plans with high quality mental health services.

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