The Older Persons’ Mental Health Service provides multidisciplinary mental health assessment and treatment for older people with mental illness.
Services are provided with a recovery-oriented approach that emphasises individual strengths, building resilience, and enhancing opportunities for participation in daily social and personal activities. The team operates on the premise that older people can and do recover from mental illness.
Older Persons Mental Health Community Team
What we do
- provide early intervention to prevent escalation of mental health issues
- mental health assessment – in the persons home, or Aged Care Facility
- short/long term case management depending on individual client needs
- collaborate with significant others, community care agencies and primary care (i.e. GP, Hospital)
- link people with organisations (i.e. for support for participation in daily activities, Dementia care, Carer support).
Eligibility criteria
People over the age of 65 who have:
- late onset mental illness
- early onset mental illness complicated by functional impairments or illness associated with ageing.
Services may be provided to people under the age of 65 who have:
- co-morbid chronic cognitive and physical disorders resulting in impairment of basic activities of daily living, or
- existing involvement with aged care services.
Note: Access to services is not exclusively on the basis of age, or diagnosis, but is based on the need for specialist older person’s mental health care. This is particularly important for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have higher rates of age-related complex health issues and subsequently may require services at an earlier age.
Access to Older Persons’ Mental Health community services
- In an emergency situation contact 000
- Urgent referrals should be made via the Acute Care Team (ACT) 1300 642 255
- Non-urgent referrals should come from GPs or primary health services (i.e. hospitals)
- Normal response time varies with demand, however is usually 1-2 weeks.
