DEVELOPMENT OF A NATIONAL SYSTEM OF PRIMARY AND SPECIALIST MENTAL HEALTH CARE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE IN AUSTRALIA
Poster C34, Saturday, October 22, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Le Baron
Eoin Kilackey1; 1Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, Australia; Centre for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
Background: The majority of mental illnesses have their onset before the age of 25 years. Despite this, there had been no systemic approach to addressing mental health in young people in Australia. Research showed that, particularly for people with non-psychotic disorders, there was a significant unmet need. 20% of people refused admission to specialist mental health services for lack of resources had had at least 1 suicide attempt in the previous 12 months. While those with the greatest severity of illness were being accepted into care, those who were not accepted were doing less well at 2 year follow-up. This indicated the need for a national system of care for young people to address this need. Methods: Over a number of years, both Liberal and Labour Federal Governments committed significant funding to develop a network of 100 primary mental health care clinics across the country. In 2011 the Federal Government committed a further $222 million to develop a national early psychosis care system. Results: 100 primary mental health care clinics have been established. They provide short-term care to young people aged between 12 and 25 years in 4 domains: Mental health, physical health, vocational health and accommodation. 6 Early psychosis clinics have been established. These follow a model of 16 core components. A fidelity scale has also been developed to measure the fidelity of implementation. Conclusion: National reform of mental health services is both necessary and complicated. This presentation will discuss some of the challenges that have emerged in this reform journey and future directions for further reform.
Topic Area: Service System Development and Reform