The Integrated Mental Health Atlas of the Far West

Salvador-Carulla, Luis; Fernandez, Ana; Maas, Cailin; Rosen, Alan; Astell-Burt, Thomas; Feng, Xiaoqi; Salinas-Perez, Jose Alberto

Access status:

Open Access

Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Salvador-Carulla, Luis
dc.contributor.author	Fernandez, Ana
dc.contributor.author	Maas, Cailin
dc.contributor.author	Rosen, Alan
dc.contributor.author	Astell-Burt, Thomas
dc.contributor.author	Feng, Xiaoqi
dc.contributor.author	Salinas-Perez, Jose Alberto
dc.date.accessioned	2016-05-09
dc.date.available	2016-05-09
dc.date.issued	2016-01-01
dc.identifier.citation	Salvador-Carulla, L., Fernandez, A., Maas, C., Feng, X., Astell-Burt, T., Salinas-Perez, JA. (2016). "The Integrated Mental Health Atlas of the Far West". Mental Health Policy Unit, Brain and Mind Centre, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney.	en
dc.identifier.isbn	978-1-74210-382-2
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/2123/14881
dc.description	The recent National Review of Mental Health Programmes and Services by the National Mental Health Commission has drawn attention to the need of local planning of care for people with a lived experience of mental illness in Australia and the relevance of a bottom-up approach to understanding “services available locally [in] the development of national policy”. It also calls for responsiveness to the diverse local needs of different communities across Australia. THE FINDINGS FROM THE NATIONAL REVIEW ARE IN LINE WITH THE RECOMMENDATIONS PRESENTED BY THE NSW MENTAL HEALTH COMMISSION IN THE REPORT LIVING WELL: A STRATEGIC PLAN FOR MENTAL HEALTH IN NSW 2014-2024. Living Well identified that Local Health Districts should implement strategies to ensure that scarce clinical skills are employed to the best effect and the need to harness new technology to support clinicians and service providers with new tools to improve care, data collection and information sharing. The Integrated Mental Health Atlas of the Far West aligns with these recommendations. The Atlas is the region’s first inventory of available mental health services, from which it will be possible to derive benchmarks and comparisons with other regions of NSW. This will inform services planning and the allocation of resources where they are most needed. It is a tool for evidence-informed planning that critically analyses the pattern of mental health care provided within the boundaries of Far West Local Health District. We used a standard classification system, the "Description and Evaluation of Services and Directories in Europe for long-term care" model (DESDE-LTC), to describe and classify the services; as well as geographical information systems to geolocate the services. Use of the DESDE-LTC, widely used in Europe, has enabled a more robust understanding of what services actually provide and will enable planners to make comparisons across areas and regions, once this methodology is more widely available. This atlas has identified some major strengths in the provision of mental health care in the Far West:  the good availability of inpatient residential and outpatient care; although 85 per cent of the services are located in Broken Hill (where 61 per cent of the population resides), there are substantial efforts to increase accessibility to the surrounding areas; and the crucial role of effective partnerships. On the other hand, the Atlas also identified some gaps:  a lack of specific services for older people;  an absence of core components of the balanced model of mental health care, as seen in other LHD across NSW (such as absence of day care and long term accommodation for people with a lived experience of mental illness) ; and a low capacity of the workforce, in particular a shortage of skilled/qualified workers, including psychiatrists. Taken together the information in this Atlas highlights key areas for consideration for future planning for the provision of mental health services Far West. The findings reflect some of the findings and recommendations in the recent report of the National Review of Mental Health Programmes and Services made by the National Mental Health Commission.	en
dc.description.sponsorship	Mental Health Commission of New South Wales	en
dc.language.iso	en_AU	en
dc.publisher	Mental Health Policy Unit, Brain and Mind Centre, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney.	en
dc.rights	Other
dc.subject	Health Geography	en
dc.subject	Mental Health Policy	en
dc.subject	Health Service Research	en
dc.subject	Health Systems Research	en
dc.subject	Mapping	en
dc.title	The Integrated Mental Health Atlas of the Far West	en
dc.type	Book	en
dc.subject.asrc	FoR::111714 - Mental Health	en
dc.subject.asrc	FoR::111799 - Public Health and Health Services not elsewhere classified	en
dc.type.pubtype	Publisher version	en
usyd.faculty	Faculty of Medicine and Health, Centre for Disability Research and Policy	en