Mental Health plan focuses on better access to services

NEW Mental Health Plan aims to cut delays in access and improved service delivery in a sector the government concedes is fragmented.

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A NEW mental health “road map” aims to cuts delays and improve access in a sector described as “a complex patchwork of success and areas of failure”.

The Mental Health Services Plan 2020-2025 – prepared by the Chief Psychiatrist Dr John Brayley and the SA Mental Health Commissioner Chris Burns – was released yesterday by Health Minister Stephen Wade and aims to reduce the number of suicide deaths.

It comes after The Advertiser andthe Sunday Mail reported repeated cases of mental health patients being held in hospital emergency departments for as long as four days at a time. Among the worst cases documented were:

A PATIENT “warehoused’ in an emergency department for four days last month because there was nowhere to admit them;

TWO patients stuck in EDs for four days in February 2018 for the same reason, and;

ONE patient spending all of Christmas Day 2017 in an ED as there was no suitable accommodation.

Mr Wade said the new plan placed an emphasis on supporting better outcomes for patients, and a key part of it was the “Towards Zero Suicide” initiative.

He said the plan included strategies to reduce the number of suicide deaths of people being treated in specialised services within three to five years. The plan notes there are 690,000 interactions between patients and mental health services each year, 20,700 ED arrivals and 9200 acute admissions to hospital beds.

It also states the system “has become a complex patchwork of success and areas of failure”.

The Government, with help from Federal Government, has invested $100 million towards new initiatives for mental health services in SA.

This includes $10 million for a borderline personality service, $35 million for a dementia unit for older people at the Repatriation Health Precinct and $20 million for more forensic mental health beds.

Dr Brayley said the plan provided a renewed vision for mental health services, following feedback that the current system was difficult to navigate and people did not always know where to get help.

“For this reason, there is a particular focus towards community alternatives focused on early intervention and prevention, reduced reliance upon hospital emergency services, improved access to non-drug therapies …” he said.

“Importantly, the plan, consistent with international best-practice, expects that the peer workforce – staff who have lived experience of mental illness – have a core role in mental health service delivery.”

Opposition health spokesman Chris Picton said under the Liberal government the number of mental health patients stuck in EDs for more than 24 hours had doubled.

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