Understanding and acknowledging culture, ethnicity, wellness, resilience and recovery is essential when providing patient-centred care.
Last year the General Practice Mental Health Standards Collaboration (GPMHSC) convened five working groups to develop/update the existing Mental Health Treatment Plan templates to incorporate culturally relevant information.
The minimal requirements Mental Health Treatment Plan template has been updated with information including:
- Pronouns, sex assigned at birth and gender
- Preferred languages spoken, interpreter required and country of birth
- Information regarding a patients Carer and their contact details
A template has also been developed solely for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social and Emotional Wellbeing template includes information such as:
- Carer/next of kin details, to help reinforce the importance of communal care
- Relevant information regarding the patients social and cultural determinants of health
- Important family and social history, including information about the patients connection with their mob
GPMHSC has put together a short webinar which goes through the changes and encourage all GPs to download the word, PDF and RTF templates from the GPHMSC website and upload them into whichever practice software they utilise.