July 2004

Primary care partnership focuses on mental health

Cohesion, collaboration and the consistency of mental health promotion have marked Kingston Bayside Primary Care Partnership’s work.

Kingston Bayside PCP is a voluntary alliance of 25 primary care member agencies within the cities of Kingston and Bayside.

Its chairman John Turner has praised the commitment and effort of member agencies for providing better health outcomes for the community since 2000.

Mr Turner said the mental health theme was linked to the overall Kingston Bayside PCP strategy, which included its Service Coordination—Better Access to Services Strategy, the Community Mental Health Project and Partnership development initiatives;

The cohesion and collaboration within the Partnership had been demonstrated with the Strengthening Partnership and Collaboration in Planning for the Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing of two Population Groups poster presented at the International Health Promotion and Education Conference in Melbourne in April.

The poster highlighted the value of having a planned and coordinated approach to mental health promotion and demonstrated the outcomes of two Kingston and Bayside PCP promotion projects—the Depression and Emotional Well-being in Older People Project and the Transition to Parenthood Project.

The Older People Project resulted in a three-year strategy focusing on workforce development, community awareness, coordination of mental health services and reducing social isolation in the elderly.

This Transition to Parenthood Project responded to local identification of increasing number of young homeless women who were pregnant or parenting and whose needs were complex.

Priorities for this project were to:

• Develop an information kit around emotional and physical health issues;

• Develop a resource guide for service providers to enable referrals to be made to appropriate services;

• Increase the knowledge base of service providers around issues pertinent to the young women and issues that affect access to services;

• Develop protocols within housing services to enable individuals access to Maternal Child Health Nursing Services;

• Increase social connectedness through a mentoring volunteer program;

• Development of a poster with general practitioners and mothers groups depicting signs and symptoms of depression in mothers.

• For more information contact Kingston Bayside Primary Care Partnership Health Promotion Officer Meredith Herold on 8587 0242.