MEDICUS MARCH 2016

C O V E R S T O R Y

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services). However, with no coins in the honey pot to action The Plan, questions have been raised as to how it will be realised. Additionally (and fittingly), two recommendations made by the State Coroner following the Alma Street Clinic investigation reinforce the need to improve mental health services in WA and to steer mental health towards a patient-centred model of care, and encouraged the WA government to provide the funding and resources to progress recommendations of the compelling Stokes Review (including the planning and implementation of The Plan (2015-2025). There is clearly a long-recognised need to reform mental healthcare in WA, which is now being tackled from both a Commonwealth and state level. Reassuringly, the WA Primary Health Alliance (WAPHA), which will operate the Primary Health Networks (PHNs) here in WA, is working closely with the State Government to co-ordinate and align services where possible with The Plan. Regular meetings between WAPHA and the Mental Health Commission (MHC) aim to avoid duplication of services and ensure that there is an appropriate mix of services provided as the mental health landscape in WA begins to evolve. Perhaps one of the most encouraging outcomes to have emerged as a result of the renewed focus on primary mental health services in WA has been the initiation of a ground- breaking mapping project. Funded by WAPHA and the MHC, the Integrated Atlas of Mental Health will present a detailed analysis and description of the range of primary care mental health services currently available across WA and population need. Inexplicably, an assessment of such detail and integration has never been attempted here in WA; historically, our cottage industry approaches have failed to adequately map the complex nature of mental health service accessibility and delivery. Steered by private consultant ConNetica and its partner, Sydney University’s Mental Health Policy Unit, the project’s key selling point is the ability to transfer information and compare across jurisdictions, like with like. ConNetica Director, Adjunct Professor John Mendoza is confident the project will result in direct benefits. • •

clear line of sight in terms of services that are available for communities across WA. “Going forward, this will enable them to commission services that fill gaps, that don’t duplicate, that complement and that do have a better evidence base.”

For more on the Integrated Atlas of Mental Health, see page 23.

A central element of the national mental health reforms is a move towards a person-centred whole-of-care approach, with services to be commissioned through, but not delivered by, 31 PHNs. WA’s three PHNs (Perth North, Perth South and Country WA), operated by WAPHA, will play a key role in the planning and commissioning of primary mental health services across the State. From 1 July 2016, Commonwealth mental health program funding will be transitioned to the PHNs to form a newly created mental health flexible funding pool. In the first year from 1 July 2016, $350 million of existing monies will be redirected to be available nationally. By 2018/19 there will be $380 million per annum available in this national fund. Additional funding of $85 million (redirected from existing Indigenous Australians’ Health Program funding) will be allocated to Indigenous mental health over three years; $241.5 million has been allocated for PHNs to commission more drug and alcohol treatment services, including Indigenous-specific services. The PHNs will have the flexibility to use this funding to commission regionally delivered primary mental health services suited to local needs within a stepped care model. PHNs will work towards moving the mental health system from a “one size fits all, inefficient and fragmented approach, to a well-targeted, stepped care approach which matches services to need”. There will be performance measures in place to ensure that the best use is made of the funding. Utilising information from the Integrated Atlas of Mental Health, as well as its own analytical programs, WAPHA will collaboratively work with the MHC and other key stakeholders to determine and evaluate the effectiveness of existing mental health services. Based on strict guidelines and outcome measures, new services will be commissioned, or augmented (via co-commissioning with the State Department), or replaced with more efficient versions.

“Policy planners and program commissioners will have very

Herein will lie the real challenge for WAPHA as a good

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