Far West Area Health Service Mental Health Integration Project: Model for rural Australia?
Abstract
Objective: To see if a new model of service delivery ensures that individuals with a mental illness in rural and remote settings could be assessed, treated and cared for in a more appropriate way. Design: Community mental health teams (CMHTs), general practitioners (GP) and other agencies were provided with clinical and broader support services by consultant psychiatrists from public and private sectors. The occasions of service were logged, audited and relevant provider groups were interviewed. Ethics approval was provided by Human Research Ethics Community of University of New South Wales. Setting: Far West Area Health Service (FWAHS), remote New South Wales. Participants: An enhanced service was provided for residents, specialist mental health and other healthcare providers. Results: Regular access to psychiatrists for primary and secondary care was achieved in remote communities in FWAHS. 3908 new patients were seen by CMHTs between July 2002 and December 2003 and 380 by visiting psychiatrists between January 2002 and July 2003. Secondary consultation, mentoring and education opportunities were made available by tele‐conference and face‐to‐face for CMHTs and others in FWAHS. GPs and CMHTs in remote settings were satisfied with improved access to psychiatrist care. Conclusions: This model appears to be sustainable with reasonable levels of funding in FWAHS and may be applicable to other remote contexts.
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Rural regions have a long-standing lack of mental health specialists.
“Rural areas face a persistent shortage of mental health specialists such as psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, psychologists, social workers, and counselors.”
From Task-sharing approaches to improve mental health care in rural and other low-resource settings: a systematic review (2018) · cites this paper as [3]
Cites
National Mental Health Plan 2003-2008
(2003) · PsycEXTRA Dataset · doi:10.1037/e676622010-001 · Cited by 221 · see citing works
National Mental Health Policy 2008
(2009) · PsycEXTRA Dataset · doi:10.1037/e676632010-001 · Cited by 167 · see citing works
Mental health needs and expenditure in Australia
Burgess, P. M., Pirkis, J., Buckingham, B., Burns, J. M., Eagar, K., & Eckstein, G. (2002) · PsycEXTRA Dataset · doi:10.1037/e676552010-001 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
A Model for Clinical and Educational Psychiatric Service Delivery in Remote Communities
Owen, C. A., Tennant, C., Jessie, D., Jones, M., & Rutherford, V. (1999) · Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1046/j.1440-1614.1999.00578.x · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Planning Guidelines for National Demonstration Projects in Integrated Mental Health Care
Eagar, K., Owen, A., Perkins, D. A., et al. (1999) · PsycEXTRA Dataset · doi:10.1037/e677302010-001 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
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Hoeft, T. J., Fortney, J. C., Patel, V., & Unützer, J. (2018) · The Journal of Rural Health · doi:10.1111/jrh.12229 · Cited by 619 · see citing works
- Authors
- Perkins, D. A., Roberts, R., Sanders, T., & Rosen, A.
- Affiliations
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Perkins, David A.
- Venue
- Australian Journal of Rural Health
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2006-05-17
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 105-110
- ISSN
- 1038-5282 (ISSN-L)
- 1440-1584
- OpenAlex
- W2061298288
- Cited by
- 29
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2025: 3 · 2024: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 1.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Australian Journal of Rural Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Australian Government
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychiatric care and mental health services
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Emergency Medical Services › Global Health Workforce Issues
- Keywords
- mental health integration, community mental health teams, rural mental health, remote communities, general practitioners, New South Wales, service delivery models
- MeSH terms
- Community Mental Health Services, Community-Institutional Relations, Cooperative Behavior, Health Services Accessibility, Humans, New South Wales, Patient Care Team, Program Evaluation, Models, Organizational, Delivery of Health Care, Integrated, Rural Health Services
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