Topic: Mental health

Communities impacted by last summer’s devastating bushfires have not been forgotten.

This is the message from mental health service providers in Wollondilly and Wingecarribee who have reassured the community they are not alone, and that there are a range of local support options available.

Psychologist Miriam Broadhurst said some people felt forgotten because the COVID-19 pandemic had overshadowed the needs of those impacted by the bushfires.

Ms Broadhurst provides support through Community Links Wellbeing’s You in Mind and ReFrame services.

She said many locals were not coping and were feeling tired. “They are under-resourced in terms of accessing help to repair damage to their properties and this causes stress and anxiety.”

Ms Broadhurst said the community was “wounded” and without support would experience an increase in depression, suicide, anxiety, homelessness, unemployment and welfare in the years ahead.

“It is important that the community perceives that there is help, they are not alone and that people care about their situation and they are doing all they can,” she said.

South Western Sydney Primary Health Network (SWSPHN) has provided funding to local service providers to address these concerns and improve access to free mental health services to those impacted by the bushfires.

We are working with the South Western Sydney Local Health District, and Wingecarribee and Wollondilly councils to ensure a co-ordinated approach to service provision in our region.

Services include:

• Outreach to affected communities of Wollondilly, Wingecarribee, Camden and Horsley Park;
• Individual psychological therapies with mental health professionals; 
• Group services.

Specific services are available for children through the STAR4Kids program, young people through ReFrame and adults through You in Mind and the Credentialed Mental Health Nursing Service.

Community engagement officer with ReFrame, Alice Richards, said many parents had told her their children were in denial about the impact of the fires which they believed would have lasting effects.

Alice Richards

“I have spoken to many people about our free counselling service and have been told that they are glad to know the service is available and acknowledged that it is much needed,” she said.

You in Mind psychologist, Vanessa Kmet, said she was seeing people experiencing relationship breakdown, heightened agitation in all areas of their life, and feelings of worthlessness and depression.

Vanessa Kmet

She said her family had also been impacted by the bushfires and locals appreciated help coming from one of their own, someone who could sit with them and say: “it’s been terrible and we can rise up again, together”.

“After feeling uncertain that any support would be given, they are glad to see funding coming through.”

Services are continuing throughout COVID-19 pandemic, with telehealth (phone or video) options available.

For more information about these services and to find your local service provider, download SWSPHN’s Bushfire Mental Health Support and Resources brochure.

General practice has a key role in recognising and screening for eating disorders as well as in contributing to an integrated care team supporting a person living with an eating disorder.

SWSPHN as well as organisations such as InsideOut Institute, Butterfly Foundation and the National Eating Disorders Collaboration (NEDC) provide a range of tools, resources and training to assist primary healthcare providers in appropriately screening, treating and managing eating disorders.

An estimated one million Australians live with an eating disorder at any given time (Deloitte Access Economics, 2012), but fewer than 25 per cent of people with an eating disorder seek or receive care (Hart L. M., Granillo, M. T. & Jorm, A. F., et. al. 2011).

COVID-19 information updates

As the national experience of and response to COVID-19 continues to unfold, NEDC continue to share useful information about COVID-19 for the eating disorder community, including health professionals, on their website.

For local information in supporting people’s mental health during COVID-19, SWSPHN has developed an online resource for health professionals and community members.

Eating disorders HealthPathways for South Western Sydney

SWSPHN has developed a health pathway for the treatment of eating disorders in adults, adolescents and children, specifically to assist GPs working in South Western Sydney.

Recovery Point – information for patients and their families/carers on eating disorders

Recovery Point is an online resource and app to support people experiencing a mental health issue and their families, friends and carers to access information and a directory of services specific to South Western Sydney. This includes information and tools for young people and adults experiencing an eating disorder as well as the people supporting them.

New Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) items for eating disorders

On 1 November 2019, 64 new Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) item numbers were introduced to support a model of evidence-based care for eligible patients living with an eating disorder. For more information on eligibility criteria, services available and completing management plans visit the NEDC website

GP paid consultation – identification, screening and care planning of people with an eating disorder

InsideOut is undertaking a new project to work closely with general practitioners for the purpose of creating new and better opportunities in the identification, screening and care planning of people with eating disorders.

InsideOut is partnering with Meld Studios, an independent design studio, to undertake a design-based approach to creating better treatments called co-creation. Co-creation involves working closely with those providing care as well as those receiving care to understand what they truly need.

This co-creation project involves working with general practitioners in a primary care setting, as well people with lived experience of eating disorders, to understand their health experiences for screening, assessing, planning and providing or receiving treatment.

InsideOut would welcome an opportunity to talk with you about your role working in primary care. The conversation is to hear more about your experiences and would take place over a video call (using Zoom, or FaceTime) for 60 minutes with a person from Meld Studios. These sessions will run from 25 May over the course of a month.

This would be a paid consultation. Please contact Digital Project Lead Sean Rom (sean.rom@sydney.edu.au) to express interest.

Free online CPD for GPs and primary care practitioners

The Essentials: Training Clinicians in Eating Disorders

InsideOut is providing GPs and primary care practitioners (including those working in private practice) with access to their Essentials Eating Disorders online training, typically valued at $280 per person. This is 17.5 hours of free CPD and is the only online learning nationally to meet the National Eating Disorders Collaborative Core Competency Framework for eating disorder clinician training. Undertaking this training will help suitably qualified practitioners to meet the requirements for providing services under the new MBS Eating Disorder Item numbers. InsideOut has 5,000 spots available, which have been distributed across all states and territories, so places are limited. There are five modules which will equip GPs with an understanding of the central issues in the field and the skills required in each step of the diagnosis, assessment and treatment of clients, for both children and adults, across all major eating disorder diagnoses.

To access the training go to InsideOut website and check out with the code NSWESSENTIALSPRIVATE

NEDC eLearning

In addition, NEDC has a suite of five video modules available for free to health and help professionals which covers the following topics:

• Introduction to Eating Disorders
• Screening and Assessment – 0.5 hours CPD
• Medical Management – 0.5 hours CPD
• Nutritional Management – 0.5 hours CPD
• Recovery-focused Psychological Treatment – 0.5 hours CPD
   

Professional Resource for GPs in Eating Disorders

As a GP you are likely to be one of the first health professionals a person with an eating disorder will come into contact with. A GP’s role in the treatment of eating disorders can encompass prevention, identification, medical management in a primary care setting and referral. This guide from NEDC provides GPs with information on screening and assessment, referral and ongoing treatment and management of eating disorders. Don’t forget, there is also the Eating Disorders HealthPathway specific to South Western Sydney to assist in these areas.

SWSPHN has provided funding to local service providers to enhance access to free mental health services for individuals affected by the 2019/20 bushfires.

These services include:

• Outreach to affected communities of Wollondilly, Wingecarribee, Camden and Horsley Park;
• Individual psychological therapies with mental health professionals; and
• Group services as needed.

Specific services are available for children through the STAR4Kids Program, young people through ReFrame and adults through You in Mind. For individuals with severe mental illness which may have been exacerbated due to the bushfires, Credentialed Mental Health Nursing services are also available.

Services are continuing through COVID-19, with telehealth (phone or video) options available.

SWSPHN will also release community grants in the second half of 2020, which will aim to prevent suicide, promote help seeking, increase social connection and build resilience in the community.

For more information about these services and to find your local service provider

The community is invited to share their valuable thoughts and insights to help design a new Peer Support Program in a Community e-Forum. Everyone is encouraged to participate, especially if you have a lived experience of mental illness, are caring for someone with a mental illness or you are a peer worker in the South Western Sydney region.

Participate via this link: https://healthchat.swsphn.com.au/peer-workers-program The forum closes on 1 June 2020.

The program aims to improve the health outcomes, participation and social connectedness of people experiencing mental health conditions in South Western Sydney. It will support people experiencing low, mild to moderate and high mental health needs who are accessing mental health professionals through the SWSPHN commissioned You in Mind program delivered by One Door Mental Health and Community Links Wellbeing.

The program focuses on connecting people accessing the You in Mind program, as well as their carers and mental health professional, with a consumer peer worker. A consumer peer worker is someone who is employed based on their own personal lived experience of mental illness.

Peer workers can complement psychological therapy services by:

• Assisting with service access
• Supporting individual recovery journeys
• Liaising with family and carers
• Creating opportunities for connection
• Physical health coaching
• Increasing the recovery orientation of practices and services
• Providing individual and system focused advocacy

Over the past 12 months,  South Western Sydney PHN (SWSPHN) and South Western Sydney Local Health District (SWSLHD) have been working together to develop a Regional Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan to 2025. The development of a joint regional mental health and suicide prevention plan is an action under the Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan.

The Regional Plan promotes the partnerships and integrated approaches in order to reduce the impact of mental illness and suicide in the South Western Sydney.

The Regional Plan has been informed by an extensive consultation with over 200 participants including people with lived experience, their families, carers, SWSLHD clinicians and managers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, local general practitioners, along with peak bodies and other government and non-government services and agencies.

Over the next five years, the Regional Plan will establish an integrated approach for collaborative actions to improve the provision of better integrated mental health and related services in South Western Sydney.

The draft Regional Plan is now available for review and comment.

Who can share feedback?
If you are a local community member, NGO, service provider or health professional you are invited to comment and share your feedback on the draft Regional Plan. 

You can see the draft Regional Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan here. 

Share feedback on the draft Regional Plan
 Give feedback online >

You can also give feedback via email if you prefer.
Email SWSLHD-areaserviceplanning@health.nsw.gov.au 

Opportunities to comment and share feedback close on 9 April 2020.

Questions about the draft Regional Plan?
Contact Diana Milosevic, Senior Planner, SWSLHD Planning Unit
Phone: 8738 5719
Email: Diana.Milosevic@health.nsw.gov.au