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News and Events
Work and Developments
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IMHCN Representative
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Organisational Members
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Advisors, contributors and members
News and Events
Work and Developments
November 2013, INTERVOICE International Congress, Melbourne
November 2013, NSW Mental Health Commission, Sydney
November 2013, St. Vincents Health Care, Sydney
10-11 April 2008, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, Australia. Presentation of the IMHCN
IMHCN Representative
Dr Peter McGeorge, Director, St Vincent’s Hospital Mental Health Program.
During the past 20 years he has been involved in the development and clinical management of integrated systems of community and hospital-based mental health care, national policy development, quality improvement and reviews of mental health services.
Peter is the IMHCN Board Member for Australia. email: Peter McGeorge
Organisational Members
St Vincent’s Hospital Mental Health Program
Website: St Vincent’s Hospital Mental Health Program
St Vincent’s Hospital Mental Health Program is a founder partner of the IMHCN.
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Information
The St Vincent’s Hospital Mental Health Program has responsibility for the provision of mental health services to the residents of the inner city of Sydney.
St Vincent’s Hospital is located in a neighbourhood with the highest concentration of homeless persons in Australia, the highest concentration of people living with HIV/AIDS, a high proportion of alcohol and drug use and one of the highest rates of street crime.
The Mental Health Program provides a comprehensive range of mental health care services to inpatients and inner city residents.
The Program comprises four main clinical streams
- General Adult Mental Health Services (GAMHS)
- Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (CLP)
- Older Age Mental Health Service (Psychogeriatrics)
- Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression (CRUfAD)
While recognising the needs of those with significant disability, the services aim to be recovery-oriented and are guided by constant input from primary health care and non-government organisation (NGO) partners, consumers and carers.
Comprehensive Services
The Mental Health Service encompasses a comprehensive range of inpatient, outpatient and community based services for adults with serious mental health problems. ImageThe services provided are tailored to meet the particular needs of
St Vincent’s Hospital’s catchment population with service delivery based on a model of integrated care that links inpatient, ambulatory, interdepartmental and community services in a way that is efficient, effective and experienced as seamless by consumers.
Collaboration with other hospital services (particularly the Alcohol & Drug Service), government and non government agencies is intrinsic to the case management model of care.
Teaching & Research
The Mental Health Service has a major role in teaching and research and has established strong academic links with the University of New South Wales through the internationally renowned Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression (CRUfAD) and is the host site for the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre in Evidence for Mental Health Policy.
Postal Address
The O'Brien Centre
390 Victoria Street
Darlinghurst NSW 2010
Australia
New South Wales Mental Health Commission
The Mental Health Commission of NSW is an independent body which helps drive reform that benefits people who experience mental illness and their families and carers.
The Commission is working with the community towards sustained improvement in the support offered to people who experience mental illness and in their access to employment, education, housing, justice and general healthcare.
How they work
- They are driven by the lived experience of people with mental illness
- They are open, transparent and accountable
- They work in partnership with people with mental illness, their families and carers, and with stakeholders across all levels of government and non-government sectors, including housing, employment, health, education and justice
- They keep well informed on mental health issues through the Community Advisory Council and by maintaining broad networks
- They acknowledge and respect the perspective of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on mental health
- They drive the reform of the NSW mental health system and will monitor the progress of government and non-government sectors towards agreed goals
- They promote innovation, share knowledge and encourage cooperation to ensure that best practice continues to evolve, and to ensure that it is disseminated rapidly around the state
- They address stigma and discrimination
Contact: John Feneley, Commissioner Email at [email protected]
In his professional life as a lawyer, John Feneley was frustrated to see the same disadvantaged people return repeatedly to the criminal justice system, imprisoned and dislocated from friends and family while mental health problems remained unaddressed.
In his private life, Mr Feneley witnessed a family member struggle for many years to find adequate support for a long-term mental illness, in a health system geared mainly to respond to crisis.
Both experiences convinced him that the NSW mental health system needed fundamental overhaul. “It was a unique opportunity to help to bring about change,” Mr Feneley says of his appointment in July 2012 as the first NSW Mental Health Commissioner, charged with reviewing and improving the state’s response to mental illness.
Mr Feneley credits the mental health consumer movement, and its insistence on recovery, choice and autonomy, with setting the scene for system reforms - focused on better support in the community – that have stalled in the past.
Website: http://nswmentalhealthcommission.com.au
Address: Address: Building 11, Shea Close, Gladesville NSW 2111, Australia
Phone:+61 2 9859 5200
Special Advisors and Contributors
Alan is a Deputy Commissioner with the New South Wales Mental Health Commission in Australia.
In his nearly 30 years as consultant psychiatrist, director and clinical director of the Royal North Shore Hospital and Community Mental Health Services, Professor Alan Rosen has focused on the shift of the centre of gravity of mental health services from hospital to community-centered, integrating community and hospital services, while involving consumers and families directly in their management.
Professor Rosen’s strong partnerships with other clinical disciplines and community agencies, as well as his involvement in research, has helped shift the thinking towards a model based on people’s home and community, supported by effective 24-hour service, with hospital care only when really necessary.
He was also involved in research into early intervention in psychosis which contributed to reforms in NSW and the National Mental Health Strategy, leading to the replacement of institutions with community mental health teams, community-based respite residential alternatives to local inpatient facilities, supported by local general health facilities.
Professor Rosen’s interests include services, research and policy development concerning remote and community controlled Aboriginal mental health services, the involvement of peer workers in mental health care, stigma, and the measurement of outcomes including of recovery.
He believes the key to achieving reform is valuing real, detailed and continuing consultation with all parties, especially the consumer and family movements.
Professor Rosen encourages greater reliance on research evidence to guide how individuals are treated and how mental health services can work in more effective, less alienating ways that are oriented towards recovery and full citizenship in the community.