S020: Employment - disability & MH
Tracks
Track 6
| Wednesday, August 26, 2015 |
| 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM |
| Ballroom |
Speaker
Dhiraj Kishnani
Senior Occupational Therapist
Western Sydney Local Health District
Integration not just Co-location!: Full integration between mental health and disability employment services to achieve greater employment outcomes for consumers with mental illness.
Abstract
Participation in employment and education is rarely considered for mental health consumers despite evidence that this supports recovery and promotes social inclusion.
The Individual Placement and Support (IPS) Model of supported employment has demonstrated that partnerships between employment and mental health services can consistently show employment outcomes of 60% worldwide (Bond, Drake & Becker, 2008) (1)
Patients who receive psychiatric services from one provider agency and employment services from another and whose psychiatric and employment service providers do not interact frequently
or share information in a single case file had significantly poorer outcomes, all other things being equal (Cook, Judith A. et al, 2005) (2)
Does co-location of a staff member from disability employment service with mental health service guarantee expected quality outcomes? The paper will discuss the following aspects of a 3-year partnership between Blacktown City Mental Health Service and WISE Employment:
• Importance of full integration and not just co-location between the two services
• Challenges including the difference in organisational cultures, attitudes of staff and duplication of tasks
• Importance of clear communication, shared decision making, collaborative care planning and documentation between both services to yield greater employment outcomes.
The Individual Placement and Support (IPS) Model of supported employment has demonstrated that partnerships between employment and mental health services can consistently show employment outcomes of 60% worldwide (Bond, Drake & Becker, 2008) (1)
Patients who receive psychiatric services from one provider agency and employment services from another and whose psychiatric and employment service providers do not interact frequently
or share information in a single case file had significantly poorer outcomes, all other things being equal (Cook, Judith A. et al, 2005) (2)
Does co-location of a staff member from disability employment service with mental health service guarantee expected quality outcomes? The paper will discuss the following aspects of a 3-year partnership between Blacktown City Mental Health Service and WISE Employment:
• Importance of full integration and not just co-location between the two services
• Challenges including the difference in organisational cultures, attitudes of staff and duplication of tasks
• Importance of clear communication, shared decision making, collaborative care planning and documentation between both services to yield greater employment outcomes.
Biography
Dhiraj Kishnani is an Occupational Therapist with a passion for evidence based practice in mental health. He has an expertise in implementing and governing supported employment programs based on the Individual Placement and Support Model. He also provides training and supervision to Employment Specialists and mental health clinicians.
Catherine Skate is the Vocational Consultant for Western Sydney Local Health District. She has played a major role in establishment of Integrated Employment Programs at Blacktown City Mental Health Service. She specializes in providing expert consultation to both the executive and management staff in setting up specialised vocational services in mental health.
Melissa Petrakis
Senior Research Fellow/Lecturer
St Vincent's (Melbourne)/Monash University
Individual Placement and Support: Consumer outcomes through 7 years of integration and partnership by an adult clinical mental health service and a disability employment service
Abstract
Background: People experiencing severe and persistent mental illness are among the most socially and economically marginalised in our society. Despite widespread desire to work, unemployment is a common experience; compounding disadvantage further. In 2006, St Vincent’s Mental Health and Mental Illness Fellowship Victoria introduced one of the first employment services integrated with clinical mental health in Australia. This initiative utilised Individual Placement and Support (IPS), an evidence-based approach to vocational rehabilitation for individuals experiencing mental illness, to provide specialist support to people to concurrently seek to gain employment in the open labour market.
In 2013 at TheMHS we presented the study design and initial data. We are very pleased to now bring the findings!
Aims: To report on consumer outcomes from 7 years of integrated employment and mental health treatment service collaboration.
Methods: A practice-based research study was conducted in 2013-2014, using a clinical data mining process, to examine consumer and service outcomes.
Conclusions: Despite the prevalence of schizophrenia spectrum diagnoses and an older mean age (39) within the cohort, indicating that a large proportion of the cohort had experienced serious mental illness for over twenty years, findings demonstrate that 46.3% of participants achieved employment during their engagement.
In 2013 at TheMHS we presented the study design and initial data. We are very pleased to now bring the findings!
Aims: To report on consumer outcomes from 7 years of integrated employment and mental health treatment service collaboration.
Methods: A practice-based research study was conducted in 2013-2014, using a clinical data mining process, to examine consumer and service outcomes.
Conclusions: Despite the prevalence of schizophrenia spectrum diagnoses and an older mean age (39) within the cohort, indicating that a large proportion of the cohort had experienced serious mental illness for over twenty years, findings demonstrate that 46.3% of participants achieved employment during their engagement.
Biography
Kate Higgins is passionate about assisting people with mental illness to obtain quality employment outcomes. She has worked in supported employment environments in both Australia and the United Kingdom. She has qualifications in the law as well as in Social Work.
Yolande Stirling is an Intake Case Co-Ordinator at Prahran Mission in Victoria. She is an Honours graduate from the Department of Social Work, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University. The study being presented at TheMHS formed the basis of her Honours project in 2014.
Dr Melissa Petrakis has worked in clinical and community-managed mental health services for over 15 years. She is the Senior Research Fellow in Early Psychosis and Mental Health at St Vincent’s Mental Health (Melbourne), and Lecturer, Department of Social Work, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University.
