
Authors: Prakash Subedi ,Subesh Panta, Maggie Toko, Emma Bohmer, Jo Dickens, Natalie Ell
Year: 2022
Event: 2022 TheMHS Conference
Subject: psychosocial, lived experience
Type of resource: Conference Presentations and Papers
Abstract: PANEL PRESENTATION: Bringing Together Clinical and Non-Clinical Psychosocial Practitioners: Supporting People with Lived Experience of Mental Health.
Prakash Subedi ,Subesh Panta
Recovery is a journey of self-discovery that involves new learning about how to live well. Clinical and non-clinical practitioners aim to support the recovery journey of people with lived experiences of mental health issues. However, most clinical practitioners only see people with lived experience of mental health issues and their families throughout their medical journey, even though what affects people's physical, biological, and social well-being occurs outside the clinician's office. Therefore, rather than seeing people through their medical journeys, we need to strengthen all systems contributing to their well-being. Given this context, we carried out a study to see the gap in clinical and non-clinical psychosocial support delivery. Our study is based on our day-to-day professional practices with participants accessing Flourish Australia service in Western Sydney and CALD communities in Northern Melbourne. We also viewed this study through the system theory. Our study found a gap in networking, coordination, cooperation, and collaboration between clinical and non-clinical psychosocial practitioners. A significant number of participants that we work with also argue that non-clinical psychosocial support is just as important as clinical in their recovery journey. This has raised the concern that both practitioners should work together in providing better support and services.
PANEL PRESENTATION: The value of a Lived Experience Framework
Maggie Toko, Emma Bohmer
The Victorian Mental Health Complaints Commissioner (MHCC) is a regulatory body focussed on complaints made about designated mental health services.
In 2018, the MHCC undertook a project to articulate the ways it was driven by lived experience (LE). Launched in 2020, the ‘Driven by lived experience framework and strategy’ (the framework) was developed using co-design principles in consultation with the MHCC Advisory Council, MHCC staff, and members of the community.
This presentation will highlight the outcomes of the framework and showcase how LE leads our work. The presenter will be joined by a member of the MHCC Advisory Council which is made up of consumers, carers and service representatives. We will collectively highlight the benefits of being driven by LE in all our work and share the experiences first-hand. We will talk about the work we have initiated and how they continue to shape our engagement with consumers and carers and the broader community of stakeholders.
Our aim is to work with people with lived experience to ensure that their voices are heard and valued, that they have a voice and choice, that their individual needs are recognised and respected, that they feel safe and that they influence positive change.
PANEL PRESENTATION: Integrated Locality of Care – a model to future proof
Jo Dickens, Natalie Ell
It is not new that community integration is integral to the recovery for those with mild to moderate mental illness. Primary care services are most often the first point of call for mental health care delivery and intervention. This in turn, provides additional pressure on General Practitioners to deliver specialised treatment and care management within a time limited environment, exacerbated by a COVID pandemic, often outside their scope and specialisation. Burdening the existing provision of mental health care, we find ourselves in a space of seeking creativity and innovation. Having access to knowledge and support (in person or by distance) can offer reassurance and clinical guidance in building capability and confidence within our general practice colleagues. Resulting in timelier care management responses, that holds the service user at the forefront of care. Our experience and learnings in this model of engagement has seen a reduction in referrals to secondary services and quicker discharge processes, with reduced waitlists and the outcome of strengthening relationships across our healthcare community.
This resource is only available for subscribers. If you have a subscription, please log in. Otherwise, click here to purchase a subscription.