MENTAL HEALTH MONTH: Modelling team work

A model combining lived experience, clinical care and connections with other health services is helping provide a more flexible approach to mental health support in Port Pirie.

As Mental Health Month shines a spotlight on mental wellbeing during October, the Port Pirie Medicare Mental Health Centre has highlighted how peer and clinical teams work together to support people at different stages of their mental health journey.

Service manager Jo Vanstone said the centre operated with a “no wrong door” policy, with peer workers drawing on their own lived experience of mental health recovery to provide support, before involving clinicians where additional intervention was required.

“The beauty of the multidisciplinary approach is people can come in and they can meet with a peer worker, who has lived experience of their own, who can also understand where people are sitting at that point in time,” Ms Vanstone said.

“They’ve been through it, they know how recovery goes and they can support them with their concerns.

If someone needs additional support beyond what a peer worker can provide, a peer worker can connect them with one of the centres clinicians who can work with them to understand what they’re going through and support their recovery.

The centre can also connect visitors with services beyond what it offers, depending on an individual’s circumstances and level of distress.

Connections can be made with alcohol and other drug services, as well as other health and community providers.

Ms Vanstone said clinical assessments helped determine what further support was required, including referrals to hospital and community mental health services for people experiencing significant distress.

“Our main priority is to make sure that they’re safe,” she said.

“We will spend a lot of time with the person, talking about what’s going on for them, what their needs are, whether they’ve got informed consent and they understand what’s going on.

“Then, we’ll go from there.”

Ms Vanstone said the approach differed from more traditional mental health settings by combining different disciplines within an accessible, homelike environment.

“We pride ourselves on being a homelike environment that’s safe and supportive enough for people to walk in,” she said.

“They’re not a number, we will spend as much time as they need.

“We pride ourselves on giving people time, space and agency to work through what’s going on for them.”

The Port Pirie Medicare Mental Health Centre is provided by Neami National and funded by Country SA PHN through the Australian Government’s PHN program. The centre is open  Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm and can be contacted on (08) 8714 9070.