Towards Wellness: a Landmark Partnership to Improve Mental Health Care Systems and Support Across Adelaide
Friday, October 30 2020
Approximately 240, 000 people across the Adelaide metropolitan region who experience mental health challenges will benefit from a better and more coordinated local mental health care system under the Towards Wellness Plan.
The Towards Wellness: Adelaide Metropolitan Integrated Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan (Towards Wellness) launched today. The plan formalises the commitment of key local service providers to work together towards system improvement and ensure anyone who experiences mental health challenges across the metropolitan region can access the right support, at the right time and in the right place.
In a landmark partnership, Adelaide Primary Health Network (Adelaide PHN), the four metropolitan Local Health Networks (LHNs), Wellbeing SA and the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist SA have collaborated on the development, ensuring a more person centred and whole of system approach underpin the plan’s delivery over the next five years.
Towards Wellness is guided by the Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan, and follows both a local needs assessment and consultation with the Adelaide community including mental health care providers, people with a lived experience of mental health challenges and their carers.
The plan responds to an identified need for improvement in the way the local mental health care system is planned and integrated to more adequately meet the needs of people and their carers. It emphasises practical solutions and actions that will bring about real change in the way services are coordinated and delivered, and specifies clear roles and responsibilities for these actions.
Siloed service provision, a particular concern identified through the development of the plan, will be addressed by establishing better linkages between services. In turn, these improved pathways of care will support more responsive mental health care, ensuring support is stepped up or down as needed.
Ultimately, Towards Wellness will deliver better care, improved outcomes and a more seamless journey for people experiencing mental health challenges or are at risk of suicide across the Adelaide region.
The Towards Wellness plan is available to read at adelaidephn.com.au/towardswellness.
We would like to extend our gratitude to all individuals and organisations who have contributed to this plan and look forward to working with the Adelaide mental health care community across implementation. The development of this plan has been led by Adelaide PHN, Northern Adelaide Local Health Network (NALHN), Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN), Southern Adelaide Local Health Network (SALHN), the Women’s and Children’s Health Network (WCHN), Wellbeing SA and the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist SA.