Outreach in Community Mental Health Care

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Burns ◽  
Mike Firn
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Community Mental Health ◽  
Psychosocial Interventions ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Outreach Worker ◽  
Severely Mentally Ill ◽  
Outreach Work ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Seriously Ill Patients

The last 50 years has witnessed a radical change in the care of the severely mentally ill as asylums have closed and care has moved to the community. Two developments have marked this transition. The first is the development of multidisciplinary community mental health teams (CMHTs). The second is an increasing reliance on outreach to engage and support the most seriously ill patients. This book is a guide for those, whatever their professional background, who work in CMHTs. It focuses on the practicalities of the job—what they all need to know, whether coming to it from social work, nursing, or psychology. It is based on our decade of working together in an assertive outreach team and our backgrounds in nursing and psychiatry in a range of CMHTs.The book is in three parts. The first addresses the underlying principles of the practice and its variations. It explores the themes that are common to all outreach work and the specific thinking and practice characterizing different teams and settings. The second section addresses the range of problems faced by the outreach worker. These include the challenges presented by different diagnoses, plus those of hostility, homelessness, suicidality, and the omnipresent complications of drug and alcohol abuse. Psychosocial interventions aimed to promote employment and social stability are outlined with clinical examples. The third section explores the structural issues of managing the team, providing effective supervision, and conducting research. We draw on relevant research when appropriate, but the style of the book is practical, based primarily on accumulated experience.

scholarly journals Birmingham community mental health team for the homeless

1997 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Commander ◽  
Sue Odell ◽  
Sashi Sashidharan
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Community Mental Health ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
First Year ◽  
Community Mental Health Team ◽  
Mental Health Team ◽  
Health Team ◽  
Severely Mentally Ill ◽  
Homeless Mentally Ill ◽  
History Of

Mental health services have been criticised for failing to respond to the needs of the rising number of homeless mentally ill. We report on the first year of referrals to a community mental health team established to meet the needs of the severely mentally ill homeless in Birmingham. Most users had a psychotic disorder and a lengthy history of unstable housing, and experienced a range of other disadvantages. Although the team is successfully reaching its priority group, examination of other characteristics of users has highlighted a number of issues which should inform the future planning and development of the service.

scholarly journals Implementing a community-based task-shifting psychosocial intervention for individuals with psychosis in Chile: Perspectives from users

2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Agrest ◽  
PhuongThao D Le ◽  
Lawrence H Yang ◽  
Franco Mascayano ◽  
Silvia Alves-Nishioka ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Community Mental Health ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Psychosocial Intervention ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Critical Time ◽  
Psychosocial Interventions ◽  
Task Shifting ◽  
Community Based

Background: Latin America, and Chile in particular, has a rich tradition of community mental health services and programs. However, in vivo community-based psychosocial interventions, especially those with a recovery-oriented approach, remain scarce in the region. Between 2014 and 2015, a Critical Time Intervention-Task Shifting project (CTI-TS) was implemented in Santiago, Chile, as part of a larger pilot randomized control trial. CTI is a time-limited intervention delivered at a critical-time to users, is organized by phases, focuses on specific objectives and decreases in intensity over time. CTI-TS, which combines both the task-shifting strategy and the use of peers, introduces a novel approach to community mental health care that has not yet been tried in Chile. Aims: We aim to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability and applicability of such a community-based psychosocial intervention in urban settings in Latin America – specifically, in Santiago (Chile) from a user perspective. Method: We analyzed 15 in-depth interviews ( n = 15) with service users who participated in the intervention about their perceptions and experiences with CTI-TS through thematic analysis. Results: Three themes were revealed. The first was related to the structural characteristics of CTI-TS, especially regarding the timing, duration and phasic nature of the intervention. The second pertained to the acceptability of the in vivo community-based approach. The third theme dealt with the task-shifting aspect, that is, users’ perceptions of the peer support workers and the community mental health workers. Conclusions: CTI-TS was generally acceptable in this Latin American context. Users’ perspectives pointed to the need to make adjustments to some of the structural characteristics of the CTI model and to combine this type of intervention with others that can address stigma. Thus, future adaptations of CTI-TS or similar psychosocial interventions in Latin American contexts are feasible and can enhance community mental health in the region.

scholarly journals Community mental health teams in low- and middle-income countries

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Thara ◽  
S. John ◽  
S. Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Community Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Psychosocial Interventions ◽  
Health Care Team ◽  
Critical Element ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Periodic Monitoring ◽  
Low And Middle Income

The dearth of trained mental health professionals and the huge gap in providing accessible services in many low- and middle-income countries have led to the identification of alternate providers of care in these countries. Community mental health teams seem to fill this lacuna in some of these places. This editorial addresses issues of the need for such teams, their composition, responsibilities and limitations. With adequate training, these teams are able to carry out a broad array of tasks such a case identification, referrals, elementary counselling, family support and psychosocial interventions. While these teams are generally found to be enthusiastic, they require periodic monitoring and support with which they can well be a critical element of the mental health care team.

Wayfinding Training for the Severely Mentally Ill

1993 ◽  
Vol 74 (7) ◽  
pp. 434-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brennen Taylor ◽  
Ann Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Community Mental Health ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Mental Health Treatment ◽  
Health Treatment ◽  
Seriously Mentally Ill ◽  
Severely Mentally Ill ◽  
History Of ◽  
Way Finding ◽  
Ill Adults

Compliance with outpatient community mental health treatment is problematic for seriously mentally ill adults. One way to facilitate clients' compliance is through training in public bus riding and way finding skills. The authors present the history of wayfinding services, a diagram to enhance clients' learning, and suggestions for implementation.

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