NSW Family and Carer Mental Health Program
Family Friendly Mental Health Services | Mental Health Family and Carer Support Program | Generic Family and Carer SupportsWorking with people with a mental illness and supporting their families and carers is pivotal to achieving strong outcomes in mental health care. Research shows supporting carers benefits consumers, including enhancing the effectiveness of service delivery, decreasing hospital admissions and reducing relapse rates.
In acknowledgement of the need to support carers and involve them in care the NSW Government has funded the Family and Carer Mental Health Program since 2005.
The Program focuses on delivery of:
- Family Friendly Mental Health Services - supporting and training staff to include explicitly families and carers in the service system and be responsive to their unique needs.
- Mental Health Family and Carer Support Programs - direct support services delivered through NGOs that provide education and training to build coping skills and resilience, individual support and advocacy, and infrastructure support for peer support groups.
And improving access to:
- Generic Family and Carer Supports
Family Friendly Mental Health Services
The development of the Family Friendly Mental Health Services component of the Program has focussed on supporting local service improvements by enhancing the skills of mental health service staff to work with families and carers as partners in care. Area Mental Health Services now employ staff to provide local workforce training and development and provide access to specialist clinical advice. They are also developing structures to allow families and carers to have input into service delivery. Some local variations will occur in what is available, dependent on staff capacity and local need. For more information on the Family Friendly mental Health Services initiative.
A family friendly mental health service is one in which clinicians and other health professionals are at all times supported to:
- Consider the family and carer network or system throughout the consumer journey
- Support consumers to involve their families and carers in the most appropriate way for both the consumer and the family and carer
- Provide general information to families and carers, such as about how the mental health system works, and fact sheets about different mental illnesses, treatments, etc
- Recognise family and carer needs, and provide information and/or referrals to help them access support, information, education and advocacy
- Recognise that the needs of families and carers change over time, and to respond to these changes
- Recognise their own personal and organisational values, and ensure that they operate to the benefit and not detriment of families, carers and consumers.
With these specialist staff in place, key achievements for mental health services will be to:
- Provide leadership and support
- Facilitate change management
- Coordinate local training and development needs
- Provide specialist clinical consultative advice and support for family intervention
- Facilitate local resource development
- Coordinate AHS activities in partnership with NGO supports and services
- Support local systemic advocacy (including carer participation in local service planning and development)
- Build linkages and facilitate access for mental health carers to generic carer supports and services.
Many mental health in-patient services have already moved toward more family/carer facilities by designating a space for families with toys and comfortable surroundings where patients can visit with their relatives and carers and family meetings can occur. Other Areas have introduced a practitioner checklist for inclusion in client files to ensure families and carers are included; sector working parties to facilitate a bottom-up change management process and policies around consumer and carer participation. Key statements relating to working with families and carers have been included in job descriptions. Performance appraisal formats now include key performance indicators relating to families and carers. Some Area Health Service executives now receive regular reports on the implementation and outcomes of the family and carer mental health program to ensure the program retains high-level support and is a continuing priority.
State-wide training and development has also been made available to Area Health Services through the Working With Families project. The Working With Families (WWF) project developed by the South Eastern Sydney Illawarra AHS focuses on improving clinical practice by enabling clinicians to be responsive to the needs of families and carers.
In 2007, the WWF team developed the Connecting With Carers Is Everybody’s Business handbook and DVD. This resource is designed for use by mental health workers across the state to train mental health staff in the basic skills required to connect with and assess family and carer needs and to build strong partnerships between the mental health service and family and carers, with the aim of working towards a better health outcome for consumer of the service.
To download a copy of the Connecting With Carers is Everybody’s Business Handbook click here.
To download a copy of the Connecting With Carers is Everybody’s Business DVD click here.
Mental Health Family and Carer Support Program
The second key initiative is the funding of direct support services for families and carers through non-government organisations. NSW Health has funded four agencies to provide these new or enhanced services across the state:
- Education and training packages which teach families and carers about mental illness and its management, and help to build coping skills and resilience;
- Individual support and advocacy services for families and carers of people with a mental illness; and
- Help to establish peer support groups.
A key role for NGOs delivering support services will be to provide support and information to families and carers during the early stages of diagnosis and treatment.
Mental Health Family and Carer Support Services also have an important role in helping to establish peer support groups in their local area. They will not be responsible for these groups in an ongoing way, but may provide infrastructure support such as a venue, referrals and introductions, access to information and education opportunities, and advertise group activities in newsletters. For more detailed information on the Mental Health Family and Carer Support Program.
Agencies delivering mental health family and carer support services will be required to form the partnerships with:
- Families and carers
- Consumers
- Area Health Mental Health service managers and staff; including those working with Children of a Person with Mental Illness (COPMI)
- Other NGOS that work with families and carers of people with a mental illness through the NGO ‘link-up’ arrangements
- Generic family and carer support providers such as local respite services and carer support officers
- Other relevant services in the community.
Education packages for families and carers have already been developed and used extensively across NSW. These will form the backbone of carer education and training initiatives. For example, the Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia information sheets; Well Ways and Eight Stages of Healing programs offered through Schizophrenia Fellowship; SMILES, a package for young carers; Uniting Care Mental Health’s Holding onto Hope program; and Mental Health First Aid.
The specific needs of families and carers from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities will best be addressed through partnerships with other organisations, which already have connections with these communities. Innovative models such as Men’s Sheds, which act as a portal for other services, may also provide better access for these groups.
A key role for NGOs delivering support services will be to provide support and information to families and carers during the early stages of diagnosis and treatment. Support and information for family members and carers during the pre-diagnostic phase has been highlighted as a significant need.
Staff members working in these new services will need specialist training in working with families, understanding mental illness and its impact on family members and carers, and in working collaboratively across agencies.
Mental Health Family and Carer Support Services will also have an important role in helping to establish peer support groups in their local area. They will not be responsible for these groups in an ongoing way, but may provide infrastructure support such as a venue, referrals and introductions, access to information and education opportunities, and advertise group activities in newsletters.
There is one NGO providing family and carer support in each Area Health Service (AHS). The contact details for each organisation are set out below:
|
Area Health Service |
NGO Provider |
Contact Details |
|
Hunter New England AHS |
Carer Assist |
Armidale (02) 6772 3211 Newcastle (02) 4925 2811 Tamworth (02) 6761 3222 Taree (02) 6551 4333 Warialda (02) 6729 1392 |
|
Greater Southern AHS |
Carer Assist |
Albury (02) 6021 5882 Goulburn (02) 4822 3173 Griffith (02) 6962 3099 Moruya (02) 4474 0900 Queanbeyan (02) 6232 9044 Wagga Wagga (02) 6925 9399 |
|
Greater Western AHS |
Carers NSW |
Dubbo (02) 6884 7200 Orange (02) 6363 8430 or (02) 6363 9432 Broken Hill (02) 6361 2457 |
|
North Coast AHS |
Carers NSW |
Alstonville (02) 6628 6416 Coffs Harbour (02) 6650 0512 Tweed Heads (07) 5599 2141 Wauchope (02) 6585 1600 |
|
Northern Sydney Central Coast AHS |
ARAFMI NSW |
Gosford (02) 4324 0000 Ryde (02) 9888 1819 |
|
South Eastern Sydney Illawarra AHS |
Carers NSW |
Bulli (02) 4285 0155 Nowra (02) 4422 6514 Sydney (02) 9280 4744 |
|
Sydney South West AHS |
Carer Assist |
Belmore (02) 9750 9744 Campbelltown (02) 4620 5255 Moss Vale (02) 4868 2755 |
|
Sydney West AHS |
Uniting Care Mental Health |
Parramatta (02) 8842 8289 |
Generic Family and Carer Supports
The third key plank of the Family and Carer Mental Health Program relates to improving access for family and carers of people with a mental illness to existing mainstream carer programs.
Beginning with the 1999 ‘NSW Government Carers Statement’, government has recognised the importance of caring for all carers, and more specifically for carers of people with mental illness. This statement acknowledged the important role played by carers in the community generally, the diverse needs and circumstances of carers, and the need to provide services with access for everyone. All government agencies have been charged with providing enhanced carer support services, promoting carers’ independence, choices, participation in community life, and promoting the broader community’s support for carers.
The subsequent “Care for Carers” Framework was structured around three funding streams – for carers in general; mental health carers; and young carers. Carers of people with mental illness and young carers benefit from the funding for carers in general in addition to their targeted funding. That funding addressed three priority areas for carers:
- Practical support and training;
- Counselling and emotional support; and
- Building better professional practice.
In response to the review of the 1999 NSW Government Carers Statement the State Government launched the NSW Carer Action Plan 2007-2012, outlining the NSW Government’s commitment to carers.
The NSW Action Plan for Carers identifies five priority areas for action. The strategies under each priority area either will be the collective responsibility of all NSW government agencies or will be implemented by the most relevant government agency. This Plan continues to recognise the particular needs of young carers and carers of people with mental illness, in addition to carers in general. The five priority areas and related strategies agreed in the plan are as follows:
1. Carers are recognised, respected and valued
Strategies to increase the respect and recognition of carers; to demonstrate their role is valued and to ensure they are not invisible or taken for granted.
2. Identifying and supporting hidden carers
Strategies to identify and reach hidden carers, to assess their needs so timely information can be given to them, linked to support.
3. Improving services for carers and the people under their care
Strategies to improve services for carers and the people they care for, that focus on affordability, accessibility, flexibility, cultural competency and quality.
4. Carers are partners in care
Strategies that improve the interaction between carers and public agencies, and that focus on carers as partners in care.
5. Supporting carers to allow them to combine caring and work
Strategies support carers to combine caring and work, including workplaces that promote work-life balance, and the provision of flexible services to support working carers.
This commitment by NSW services to provide better support for carers complements a range of services funded through the Australian government. Mental health family and carer support services will work closely with this range of generic carer services to avoid duplication and assist families and carers to access a broad range of services to meet their needs.