Researchers: Dr Jonathan Laugharne, Susanne Stanley (The University of Western Australia)
Funding: Mental Health Commission WA
Project summary: In 2001, Lawrence, Holman and Jablensky released the Duty to Care report, revealing a range of physical disorders in people with a mental illness at markedly elevated rates when compared to the general population. The Who is Your GP report (HealthRight Advisory Group, WA Office of Mental Health, 2004) followed soon after recommending the development of clinical guidelines and monitoring protocols to improve the physical health of mental health consumers. In 2009, the Department of Health WA commissioned the Community, Culture and Mental Health Unit (UWA) to review the international literature and develop such guidelines. The Clinical Guidelines for the Physical Health Screening of Mental Health Consumers package was developed, and can be used and/or adapted for inpatient, outpatient, or community care situations. In essence, the Clinical Guidelines assessment package provides an overall, individualised, evidence-based evaluation of each consumer’s physical health status, where initial assessment results are used as a baseline from which to monitor ongoing health status. The integration of the Clinical Guidelines for the Physical Health Screening of Mental Health Consumers into Standard Mental Health Clinical Documentation places WA at the forefront of consumer physical health assessment.
In order to ease the introduction of these directives, the Mental Health Commission has provided funding to conduct a pilot service evaluation across the state to assess any issues that might arise during the implementation of mandatory physical health assessment and ongoing monitoring of mental health patients. The Clinical Guidelines physical assessment package will be provided to different services in different contexts (i.e. rural settings, inpatient, community outpatients, forensic psychiatry, and private practice) across WA. To evaluate the services, we will be conducting an audit of the patient screening forms and using a qualitative questionnaire to investigate potential difficulties for services. It is likely that a large number of participants in the evaluation of the Kimberley region of WA will be of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander decent. As poor physical health is a major issue for this population of people, we see enormous benefit in their inclusion in the evaluation. The data collected will also be analysed and possible publications will ensue to promote better physical health for mental health patients.
Progress: Completed in 2013