An innovative approach co-designed by North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network (NWMPHN) to improving treatment and support for children with mental ill health is the subject of a new paper published in the peer-reviewed science journal, PLOS One.
The approach, named ‘Connecting mental health paediatric specialists and community services’, or COMPASS, was designed as a response to an increase in demand for child mental health services as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
NWMPHN partnered with the Royal Children’s Hospital’s Health Services Research Unit and Mental Health Service to investigate a more integrated system approach. This aimed to strengthen access to paediatric mental health care and reduce the burden on specialist services and hospitals.
Launched in 2021, COMPASS comprises four elements:
- A community of practice involving a paediatric psychiatrist.
- A child psychiatry secondary consultation service.
- Support to community-based mental health clinicians.
- Improved referral pathways and information sharing between RCH triage and NWMPHN telephone assessment and referral services.
To assess the effectiveness of the program, clinicians participating in the pilot phase were asked to complete surveys, and in some cases were interviewed.
The results form the basis of the new paper, which was written by the COMPASS designers, led by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute paediatrician Professor Harriet Hiscock.
The researchers found that 93 per cent of the clinicians who attended the community of practice recommended the COMPASS model to their peers.
“Clinicians reported increased confidence and competence across all conditions, most notably for management of self-harm,” the authors found. Participants also reported “increased clinician wellbeing and reduced feelings of professional isolation and burnout”.
The authors concluded that “COMPASS is associated with improved clinician ability to manage child and adolescent mental health concerns, improved clinician wellbeing, and reduced referrals to specialised services.”
Jagjit Dhaliwal, NWMPHN’s Executive Director, Service Development and Reform, and one of the paper’s authors, said the results showed that collaboration between health services can lead to better outcomes for patients and clinicians alike.
“By working together – and faced with the need to address an unprecedented spike in demand – the COMPASS team came up with a solution that not only improved access to treatments for children experiencing mental ill health, but also empowered the clinicians to themselves be better supported,” he said.
The PLOS One paper, published on 23 September 2024, can be found here.
For media enquiries contact comms@nwmphn.org.au
