Following the 2023 SA Unmet Needs Study commissioned by the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist (SA Health), the MHCSA began in April this year looking at place-based solutions for psychosocial supports delivered by the non-Government mental health sector.
We began this work in the Barossa Valley and Northern Adelaide regions as these areas were identified as having specific service delivery challenges. They also have existing groups of mental health and community stakeholders who were already collaborating and driving advocacy in this space.
These mental health and community stakeholder groups were integral to the engagement and participation at workshops delivered by the MHCSA. Also in attendance were Government and non-Government mental health services, police, GPs, local council, community services and lived experience participants.
The report for the Barossa has been finalised and you can read it here.
From this report we can see that an investment of $1.86 million pa in the Barossa alone would address the unmet need in this area. The significance of this means we can now quantify in one area how much it will take to address the unmet needs but also come up with tangible solutions that would allow for a clear referral path for people needing psychosocial support.
Our report also found we need additional and independent University-based funding to enable researchers to determine the data required to quantify the effectiveness and impact of investing in psychosocial supports, develop a framework to support future evaluations, and look at how we use this to support improvements over time.
We are also very proud that this work explores new ways of thinking about the settings in which the non-Government psychosocial support workforce could operate. It also provides strategies to improve access to support and remove barriers to integrated care across primary settings and other health, housing, social and welfare services in these regions.
Read our report in full here.
