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Care Plans in Community Mental Health: an Audit Focusing on People with Recent Hospital Admissions

March 3, 2016 Malcolm Battersby, Publications, Research, Journal, Mental Health, Melanie Harris, Care Plan Comments Off on Care Plans in Community Mental Health: an Audit Focusing on People with Recent Hospital Admissions

Care Plans in Community Mental Health: an Audit Focusing on People with Recent Hospital Admissions – Viman Stanislaus, Tarun Bastiampillai, Dr Melanie Harris., Professor Malcolm Battersby

The Journal of Behavioural Health Services and Research – Published 03 March 2016

The first author of this accepted publication is Vimal Stanislaus, a medical student on his clinical placement with Flinders Human Behaviour & Health Research Unit in 2014. Vimal has been working with Tarun Bastiampillai and Melanie Harris on the project titled ‘Audit a sample of case notes using a standard tool that looks at physical health as well as mental health care coordination, and at action and monitoring’.

Introduction

Care planning is a key requirement for recovery-focused mental health care with care plans widely regarded as crucial, fundamental and largely successful guides in managing the complex problems of people with mental illnesses. Various mental health policies internationally mandate that care plans must be created for all people using mental health services. As well, care planning approaches have been developed worldwide to provide comprehensive assessment and holistic management of the person’s illnesses and social needs using a multidisciplinary approach and involvement of the service user. Care planning generally begins with assessment of mental, social and physical needs, and then, care activities and coordinating services are formulated to address the identified needs.

The Care Programme Approach of the Department of Health in the UK is an internationally acknowledged care planning framework, consistent with a recovery model of care and accompanied by an associated care plan audit tool. A similar approach, the Mental Health Care Plan, was introduced in 2010 in South Australia (SA). The SA health authority affirmed the requirement that services adopt the care plan with procedural documents containing the “directive that all consumers of mental health services must have a current care plan that can be accessed on [the IT
system]”. An information booklet was also distributed with the intention that the Mental Health Care Plan “will be implemented in all regions as tools for consistent and transparent care”. Benefits from such initiatives are seen only if people with mental illnesses actually receive care planning and the care plans are created and enacted as intended. It is known that various categories.

Read the full journal article here: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11414-016-9504-0

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