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Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs

Personal Helpers and Mentors Program Demonstration Teams Round 1 - Victoria

Demonstration Site: Barwon
Organisation: The Salvation Army (VIC) Property Trust trading as Kardinia Mental Health Services

The Salvation Army Kardinia Mental Health Services (KMHS) has been operating in the Barwon Region since 1999.

KMHS is a Psychiatric Disability Rehabilitation and Support Service (PDRSS), providing both flexible Home Based Outreach Support and Group Activity Programs for people living with a mental illness. KMHS utilises a strength approach and works from a participant focussed and recovery model to assist participants to develop Individual Recovery Plans that set out their goals and areas for support. This creates the ability to work in partnership with program participants, families, carers and other social and community networks.

A range of programs is offered with the aim of promoting and encouraging holistic health and wellbeing. These include a Drop In, social opportunities, sport and a Gym program. Programs are flexible and designed to respond to current participants.

KMHS has a partnership between the local mental health teams and Psychiatric Disability Rehabilitation and Support Services.

KMHS also works closely with other programs of The Salvation Army (Drug and Alcohol, Housing, Emergency Relief and Women's Services) as well as Geelong Mood Support, Commonwealth Rehabilitation Facility, RecLink and The Consumers Union.


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Demonstration Site: Eastern-Outer East
Organisation: Eastern Access Community Health Inc

Eastern Access Community Health (EACH) has been operating for more than 30 years and delivers an integrated range of community-based health, disability, and support services for individuals, families and communities within the eastern region of Melbourne.

EACH is the major provider of Psychiatric Disability Rehabilitation and Support Services (PDRSS) in the Outer East region of Melbourne and the only Disability Employment Network (DEN) provider who specifically targets people with a mental illness. It also provides an extensive range of drug and alcohol, disability, gambling, victims of crime assistance, family relationship, early childhood, counselling, allied health, financial counselling, youth and women's services, support service for indigenous people, including auspicing the Mullum Mullum Indigenous Gathering Place

EACH's Community Mental Health Support Services are person-centred, strengths-based, recovery-focussed, client-driven and provide a 'whole-of-life' response. Clients produce an Individual Support Plan (ISP) (setting out their goals, strengths and skills, and the supports they need to achieve their goals) as the platform for service delivery. EACH then facilitates the range of support and rehabilitation activities and interventions to assist clients in their recovery. This may be done in-house by programme staff or by referral to other EACH programmes or to external service providers.

EACH provides outreach support to clients as a key feature of many of its community mental health support services as well as four Psychosocial Rehabilitation Day Programs throughout the outer eastern metropolitan region.

EACH also supports the families and carers of people with a mental illness through carer support groups, publication of information for carers and families, facilitating access to respite, peer support, education, counselling and other support services.

EACH has a formal partnership with Eastern Health and works closely with the Richmond Fellowship, Relationships Australia, YMCA, the Monash Link and Inner East Community Health Services, Upper Yarra Community House, Whitehorse Division of General Practice, North Ringwood Medical Centre, Glen Park Community Centre and ARAFMI in the delivery of services. It also works collaboratively with a diverse range of other agencies and services to provide specific supports and services for its clients. These include GPs, hospitals, family support agencies, education facilities, accommodation and support services, disability support services, community support groups, neighbourhood and community houses, local government services, Police, and CALD/Indigenous groups and services.

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Demonstration Site: Melbourne - Inner South
Organisation: Richmond Fellowship of Victoria

Richmond Fellowship of Victoria (RFV) was incorporated in 1974 and has over 30 years experience providing services to people who have a psychiatric disability that impacts seriously on their life and health.

RFV provides a range of psychiatric disability support and homelessness services that incorporate outreach, residential rehabilitation, supported housing, planned respite, day programs and individual service packages.

RFV's services provide psychosocial rehabilitation, are strengths-based and recovery-focused and offer whole-of-life support. Clients develop an Individual Program Plan, setting out their principal areas of need, to guide the delivery of services to support them. RFV assists each client to access these services which cover clinical, employment, education, housing, health, welfare or recreation support. These services are provided either in-house by other RFV programmes or by external service providers.

Case management services are provided either by RFV or, in around 50 per cent of cases, by the Area Mental Health Service which refers people to RFV, usually after a period within a residential facility.

RFV already operates in Melbourne's Inner South with services at Albert Park and Armadale. These services include two transitional residential psychosocial rehabilitation programmes; Inner South Outreach, assisting clients with functional limitations resulting from a mental illness to live as independently as possible; and Southern Respite Services providing respite to carers of people with psychiatric disabilities.

RFV has formal and well-established links with a range of clinical mental health services in the Inner South which provide the majority of referrals to RFV. These include Alfred Health; Waiora and Junction Community Mental Health Services; the Inner and Middle South Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service; Forensicare; and Thomas Embling Hospital. Referral systems are also in place with other Psychiatric Disability Rehabilitation Support (PDRS) services such as Prahran Mission, Inner South Community Health, St Kilda Rd Drop-in Centre, and the Mental Illness Fellowship as well as private providers such as Albert Rd Clinic.

RFV also has formal and informal collaborative arrangements with agencies in its Inner South external service provider network. It has referral processes in place with drug and alcohol services (Windana Drug and Alcohol Recovery, Inner South Community Health Service, Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre, the Youth Substance Abuse Service); transitional housing managers and Supported Accommodation Assistance Programmes (Hanover Southern, Supported Housing Ltd, Brotherhood of St Lawrence, Southern Directions Youth Service); provider networks (Greater South Eastern and Southcity Divisions of General Practice, Inner South East Partnership in Community and Health); and employment programmes (Spectrum, Wise Employment).

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Melbourne - Inner West
Organisation: The Salvation Army (VIC) Property Trust

The Salvation Army Australian Southern Territory (comprising Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory) operates more than 550 social programmes with each one tailored to suit local community needs. As part of this network, The Salvation Army provides a range of integrated community services to young people and adults experiencing severe disadvantage within the community including residential support for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, drug and alcohol supported accommodation, disability employment services and community aged care packages.

The Salvation Army has also been providing community-based support to people recovering from mental illness for more than 15 years. The organisation offers a range of mental health programmes including: OASIS Intensive Support (psychosocial rehabilitation and case management for men with complex needs); SANS Intensive Support (psychosocial rehabilitation and case management for women and men with complex needs); and the Mental Health Housing Pathways Initiative (transitional accommodation and case management for men and women exiting forensic psychiatric care). The SANS and OASIS programmes won the ANZ Mental Health Service Achievement Award Gold Medal in 1999, in recognition of outstanding practice in working with people with mental illness.

The Salvation Army operates in partnership arrangements with a range of agencies and community resources including local housing services, local hospitals and health service providers such as the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Western Region Health Service, local employment and education service providers and culturally specific services such as Gathering Place and the Migrant Resources Centre North West Region.

The organisation also works collaboratively with local government, consumer representatives, police, residents groups and local business.

The Salvation Army takes a holistic, recovery focused, strengths-based and client-driven approach to supporting people with mental illness. It has extensive experience in outreach service delivery and has processes in place to manage referrals including strategies to address waiting lists and approaches that ensure that referrals are conducted in consultation with programme participants.

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