Authors: Lisa Brophy
Year: 2019
Event: 2019 TheMHS Conference
Subject: Who are the users of Prevention and Recovery Care Services in Victoria? Characteristics of the participants in the statewide PARCS Project.
Type of resource: Conference Presentations and Papers
Abstract:
Biography:
Lisa is Professor and Discipline lead in Social Work at LaTrobe University, while also maintaining a strong link to the Recovery and Social Justice Unit in the Centre for Mental Health at the University of Melbourne. Lisa’s research focus is on people experiencing mental ill health and psychosocial disability and their recovery, social inclusion and human rights. Her research has fostered strong interdisciplinary partnerships, working in collaborative research teams with academics from a range of disciplines and universities, across Australia and internationally. Her teams have also included people with lived experience and partner organisations leading to research and evaluation activities that are highly participatory and contribute to making a difference for people with mental health illness and psychosocial disability.
Prevention and Recovery Care (PARC) services are recovery-oriented sub-acute residential facilities that involve a partnership between mental health community support services (MHCSS) and clinical mental health service providers. They have become an important component of the matrix of services to support and enable recovery in Victoria. Most PARC services have 10-beds in a home like environment where people can stay for up to 4 weeks. The primary aims of the PARC services are to improve mental health outcomes, and to prevent avoidable acute hospital admissions. While there are early signs that Victorian PARC services promote positive outcomes, the evidence base is limited and has tended to focus on ongoing service use (1). In a partnership with MHCSS, we have undertaken a state-wide evaluation of the PARC services, to assess the appropriateness, effectiveness and efficiency of PARC services in Victoria. One aspect of this study is to document the experiences and outcomes of 291 PARC consumers over a 12-month period. Although aspects of PARC consumer characteristics have been reported on previously (2), we aim to provide further insight into who is accessing PARCs by gathering information about their wellbeing, personal recovery, social inclusion and community participation.
Learning Objectives
Learning Objective 1: The audience will gain a thorough understanding the people who use PARC services at a level that has not yet been reported.
Learning Objective 2: It is vital when providing mental health services that the consumer population using these services is understood. Exploring the above mentioned aspects of PARC services users will allow providers to more thoroughly know the specific needs of this population, and therefore may be able to provide more appropriate care and support, aiding in overall recovery.
References
1. Parker S, Siskind D, Harris M. Community based residential mental health services: What do we need to know? Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. 2014;49(1):86-7.
2. Galloway J, Scollo G, Thomson N. Mental Health Prevention and Recovery Care: A clinical and community partnership model of sub-acute mental health care. In: Department of Health and Human Services, editor. Melbourne: Victorian Government; 2016.
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