Abstract
The Child Mental Health Service (CMHS) is an Australian primary care program introduced in July 2010 to provide mental healthcare to children who have, or are at risk of, developing psychological disorders. The Australian Government provided supports (e.g., training for mental health professionals), resources (e.g., funding for positions devoted to fostering inter-agency linkages or partnerships) and various flexibilities in service delivery. This study aimed to explore the processes used in the implementation of the CMHS in order to achieve its objectives of delivering a high quality standard of service, and forging linkages and support networks with other relevant health and non-health agencies. Structured interviews were conducted with 20 program administrators, six referring professionals and eight mental health professionals. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed for themes using NVivo. The CMHS appears to have made good progress towards achieving its objectives by implementing processes that facilitated the delivery of a high quality service (e.g., engaging appropriately qualified, and encouraging additional training and clinical support for, mental health professionals; employing quality assurance mechanisms and clinical governance arrangements) and establishment of inter-agency linkages (e.g., devoting a professional role—Coordination and Liaison—to this purpose). Provider perspectives suggest that the CMHS has had a positive impact on children and their families. Comparable countries implementing primary mental health programs for children may benefit from considering similar additional supports (e.g., training for mental health professionals), resources (e.g., funding positions devoted to fostering service inter-agency linkages) and service delivery flexibilities as those available in the CMHS.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. (2012a). Draft operational guidelines for the access to allied psychological services (ATAPS) program, child mental health service (CMHS), April 2012. Canberra: Department of Health and Ageing.
Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. (2012b). Operational guidelines for the access to allied psychological services initiative. Canberra: Mental Health Services Branch, Mental Health and Drug Treatment Division.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2005). National mental health performance framework. Retrieved from http://meteor.aihw.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/584825.
Balbale, S. N., Locatelli, S. M., & LaVela, S. L. (2015). Through their eyes: lessons learned using participatory methods in health care quality improvement projects. Qualitative Health Research. doi:10.1177/1049732315618386.
Bassilios, B., Nicholas, A., Fletcher, J., King, K., Reifels, L., & Ftanou, M., et al. (2014). Evaluating the access to allied psychological services (ATAPS) component of the better outcomes in mental health care (BOiMHC) program. special report: An evaluation of the ATAPS child mental health service. Melbourne: Centre for Health Policy, Programs and Economics, The University of Melbourne.
Bassilios B, Nicholas A, Reifels L, King K, Spittal M J, Fletcher J, Pirkis J. (in press). Improving access to primary mental health care for Australian children. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. doi:10.1177/0004867416671412.
Bassilios, B., Nicholas, A., Reifels, L., Machlin, A., Ftanou, M., King, K., et al. (2013). Evaluating the Access to Allied Psychological Services (ATAPS) program: Consolidated 10-year Report. Retrieved from https://ataps-mds.com/site/assets/files/1016/ten_year_ataps_report_final_acc.pdf.
Bower, P., Garralda, E., Kramer, T., Harrington, R., & Sibbald, B. (2001). The treatment of child and adolescent mental health problems in primary care: a systematic review. Family Practice, 18, 373–382.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3, 77–101. doi:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.
Department of Health. (2014). Primary Health Networks Grant Programme Guidelines, V1.1. Retrieved from http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/PHN-Program_Guidelines.
Fuller, J. D., Perkins, D., Parker, S., Holdsworth, L., Kelly, B., & Roberts, R., et al. (2011). Effectiveness of service linkages in primary mental health care: a narrative review part 1. BMC Health Services Research, 11, 72. doi:10.1186/1472-6963-11-72.
Kessler, R. C., Angermeyer, M., Anthony, J. C., de Graaf, R., Demyttenaere, K., Gasquet, I., & Ustun, T. B. (2007). Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of mental disorders in the world health organization’s world mental health survey initiative. World Psychiatry, 6, 168–176.
Kyu, H. H., Pinho, C., Wagner, J. A., Brown, J. C., Bertozzi-Villa, A., & Charlson, F. J., et al. (2016). Global and national burden of diseases and injuries among children and adolescents between 1990 and 2013: findings from the global burden of disease 2013 study. JAMA Pediatrics, 170, 267–287. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.4276.
Malterud, K., Siersma, V.D., & Guassora, A.D. (2015). Sample size in qualitative interview studies guided by information power. Qualitative Health Research. doi:1049732315617444.
Merikangas, K. R., Nakamura, B. A., & Kessler, R. C. (2009). Epidemiology of mental disorders in children and adolescents. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 11, 7–20.
Moore, G. F., Audrey, S., Barker, M., Bond, L., Bonell, C., & Hardeman, W., et al. (2015). Process evaluation of complex interventions: medical research council guidance. British Medical Journal, 350, h1258.
Morley, B., Pirkis, J., Sanderson, K., Burgess, P., Kohn, F., Naccarella, L., & Blashki, G. (2007). Better outcomes in mental health care: the impact of different models of psychological service provision on consumer outcomes. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 41, 142–149. doi:10.1080/00048670601109915.
National Mental Health Commission. (2014). The national review of mental health programmes and services summary. Sydney: National Mental Health Commission.
Pidano, A., Honigfeld, L., Bar-Halpern, M., & Vivian, J. (2014). Pediatric primary care providers’ relationships with mental health care providers: survey results. Child and Youth Care Forum, 43, 135–150. doi:10.1007/s10566-013-9229-7.
Pirkis, J., Morley, B., Kohn, F., Blashki, G., Burgess, P., & Headey, A. (2004). Improving access to evidence-based mental health care: general practitioners and allied health professionals collaborate. Primary Care Psychiatry, 9, 125–130. doi:10.1185/135525704X15048.
Psychology Board of Australia. (2015). Registration standard: Continuing professional development. Melbourne: Psychology Board of Australia.
Queensland Health. (2009). Clinical supervision guidelines for mental health services. Brisbane: Queensland Government.
Reifels, L., Bassilios, B., King, K., Fletcher, J., Blashki, G., & Pirkis, J. (2013). Innovations in primary mental health care. Australian Health Review, 37, 312–317. doi:10.1071/AH12203.
Rodríguez, A., Southam-Gerow, M. A., O’Connor, M. K., & Allin, Jr, R. B. (2014). An analysis of stakeholder views on children’s mental health services. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 43, 862–876. doi:10.1080/15374416.2013.873982.
Shield, T., Campbell, S., Rogers, A., Worrall, A., Chew-Graham, C., & Gask, L. (2003). Quality indicators for primary care mental health services. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 12, 100–106. doi:10.1136/qhc.12.2.100.
Southam-Gerow, M. A., & Dorsey, S. (2014). Qualitative and mixed methods research in dissemination and implementation science: introduction to the special issue. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 43, 845–850. doi:10.1080/15374416.2014.930690.
Whiteford, H., McKeon, G., Harris, M., Diminic, S., Siskind, D., & Scheurer, R. (2014). System-level intersectoral linkages between the mental health and non-clinical support sectors: a qualitative systematic review. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 48, 895–906. doi:10.1177/0004867414541683.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported through funding from the Australian Government Department of Health.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Statement of Human Rights
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the University of Melbourne’s Human Ethics Committee (Ethics ID 1136812.2) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Electronic supplementary material
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bassilios, B., Nicholas, A., Ftanou, M. et al. Implementing a Primary Mental Health Service for Children: Administrator and Provider Perspectives. J Child Fam Stud 26, 497–510 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-016-0572-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-016-0572-9