Implementing an interagency collaborative care planning system: Post pilot analysis.

Abstract

The Child and Youth Mental Health Service (CYMHS) Redesign Demonstration Project is a state funded project implementing reforms in line with the ‘Because Health Matters: Victorian Mental Health Reform Strategy 2009-2019’. This project aims to achieve regional and systemic change across a number of sectors to fundamentally improve mental health outcomes for children and young people throughout the Grampians region. A key initiative of the project was the implementation of an Interagency Mental Health Service System. In this approach, service providers collaborated to create a system and a culture that supported collaborative care planning. There were several aims regarding the implementation of this model; such as providing appropriate and timely coordinated support, development of a service system to support interagency care planning, and ensuring the routine provision of evidence-based best practice interventions within a client-centered, family inclusive context. The model was successfully piloted in Stawell and is presently in the process of extension across the Grampians Region. This presentation will focus on the outcomes of the pilot phase, what worked well, what didn't and how services can be improved to deliver better outcomes for children and young people now and into the future. In summary, the Grampians Region CYMHS Redesign Demonstration Project has embraced the vision of working towards a more coordinated and collaborative approach to the delivery of mental health care for children and young people aged 0-25 years. This project has provided a consortium of agencies with the unique opportunity to look at how enhanced workforce development, service redesign and cross-agency collaboration interrelate in order to build the foundations for better outcomes in mental health and well-being.