History
The Mental Health Professionals Network (MHPN) began operations in August 2008.
MHPN was contracted by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing to roll out interdisciplinary mental health care workshops across Australia as a means of building sustainable professional mental health networks.
The project drew on knowledge gained from research commissioned by the Mental Health Professionals Association (MHPA) and a number of pilot workshops.
Legislating for collaboration
In July 2006, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) endorsed a National Action Plan on Mental Health.
It offered a strategic framework emphasising coordination and collaboration between government, private and non-government providers.
Under the Plan, the Australian Government committed $1.9 billion over 5 years to implement initiatives to improve services for people with a mental health disorder, their families and carers.
One of the initiatives was the Better Access program. This aims to provide increased access to mental health services through new Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) items that allow coordinated and more affordable mental health care for the community.
The new MBS funded services promote a collaborative approach to mental health care with GPs encouraged to liaise with psychiatrists, paediatricians and allied mental health professionals to increase the availability of care.
The foundation
MHPA was set up in early 2006 as a collaborative forum for issues affecting the key professions providing mental health care.
Representing four major organisations, the MHPA was engaged by the Department of Health and Ageing to develop a resource package for mental health professionals to facilitate the use of new and existing mental health Medicare items (Better Access) in an effective and efficient manner.
Pilot workshops
MHPA held pilot workshops in a mix of metropolitan and rural regions. The workshops were consistently rated as valuable by participants who gained:
- better understanding of the respective mental health professions
- improved access to local resources
- more up-to-date clinical knowledge
- the anticipated ability to make more efficient and appropriate referrals.
These benefits were seen as likely to improve outcomes for clients by generating greater collegial support and networks which would in turn have additional flow-on effects.
The Federal Government response was to fund a national rollout of workshops.
Advent of MHPN
To organise these workshops and subsequent networks, MHPN was established as an independent body.
Over an 18 month period, MHPN ran 1169 workshops across Australia, attended by over 15,000 clinicians. (Select the map for workshop locations).
Since then, MHPN has fostered the establishment, merger and consolidation of the networks built from these workshops.
MHPN continues to manage networks across metro, regional, rural and remote parts of Australia. An important networking tool is the collaborative portal for clinicians - MHPN Online.
Network attendance figures are climbing. MHPN continues to receive applications for new networks as news of its work spreads in the professional community.
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