Improving work in mental health

Severe mental illness is an obvious concern that medical professionals often find difficult to diagnose.

To address this issue, the Griffith Health Institute’s Population and Social Health Research Centre have established the Activate: mind & body research project in partnership with Queensland Health, General Practice Queensland and the University of Queensland.

The project, titled the Activate: mind & body research, is led by Dr Carolyn Ehrlich, and aims to improve the understanding of the implementation of guidelines by health professionals when working with mental health patients.

“People with mental illnesses often find it difficult to explain their physical concerns to a health professional,” Dr Ehrlich said.

“There are so many boundaries to their care; the health system is not conducive to dealing with people with complex concurrent problems who take more time and have more questions. In addition, the professions often can’t agree on who is in charge of the issue,” she added.

According to national seniors lobby group COTA, active ageing depends on a variety of influences that surround individuals, families and communities. All these factors, and the interaction between them, play an important role in affecting how well people age, and their mental health and wellbeing outcomes.

The Queensland research component will use two intervention sites with a multi-sector approach to practice reform. Health professionals will complete a pre and post intervention survey to ascertain skills and background with health promotion.

After linking datasets and comparing the results with control districts, Dr Ehrlich and her team hope to develop an intervention that supports the adoption of guidelines by healthcare professionals.

“The guidelines need to be locally responsive; they’re not going to cut it if they just sit on the shelf like so many other guidelines,” Dr Ehrlich said.

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) announced its disappointment last December to read that The Roadmap for National Mental Health Reform 2012-2022 reportedly only mentioned ‘older people’ once in the 48 page document outlining mental health reform.

“Australians are now living longer than ever, and our population as a whole is ageing. However, we are not appreciating the importance of preparing our society to meet the needs of these people, and we are not valuing their needs and contributions,” a RANZCP statement read.