Therapeutic Interventions Resource Hub - Online Interactive Mental Health Sharepoint site

Aim

The role of Therapeutic Interventions Coordinator was newly implemented, having commenced in October 2019. A driving force of this role establishment was to support rural and remote clinicians to have access to specialist support to build capacity in the utilisation of gold-standard therapeutic interventions stepping away from traditional biomedical models of care to a more holistic mental health recovery journey.

The Therapeutic Intervention Hub was also developed with the aim to provide access to up to date information, treatment guidelines and training guidelines. This is not a static project and is continuing to be updated and expanded upon to ensure that even when isolated by either location or COVID-19, our rural and remote clinicians have access to gold-standard mental health resources.

Outcomes

Qualitative feedback, coupled with survey results have highlighted the improvement in consumer outcomes in their mental health recovery pathway as a direct result to readily available evidence-based therapeutic intervention options. The World Health Organisation research indicates the significant benefit to consumer recovery in the utilisation of holistic therapeutic care in mental health case management rather than traditional biomedical models. This has been seen in real time by our rural and remote clinicans in reducing the severity, frequency and improving the sustainability of recovery for our consumers by the use of evidence based therapeutic interventions. This is now far more accessible and user friendly now it is compiled on "The Hub".

Technology has long been an ally for those working in remote locations, this project took the next step in the development of an interactive online resource. The HUB can be accessed and used in session with consumers to formulate and develop recovery care planning, use of psycho-education sheets, videos or determine appropriate therapeutic interventions.

Background

Clinicians working within rural and remote community mental health teams are often required to have an extraordinary breadth of knowledge and skillset across the lifespan. However, conversely are less likely to be able to access training and the most up to date gold standard evidence based therapeutic intervention resources or training.

Discussion

As part of the implementation of the Rural and Remote Resource Team a quality activity was undertaken to track and measure the efficiency and effectiveness of the team for our rural and remote services. At the commencement in 2019 clinicians responded to surveys indicating only 53 per cent used evidence-based interventions two to three times a week and only 30 per cent used daily. The survey was repeated in October of 2020 with 92 per cent indicating two to three times a week use and 50 per cent reporting daily use.

Moreover, confidence in use of therapeutic interventions was evaluated via survey in 2019 with only 46 per cent of clinicians indicating they felt confident in applying therapeutic interventions. The survey was repeated in 2020 with an improvement of 54 per cent in clinician confidence reported.

The Hub usage has steadily increased as confidence in use has built, with the resource being utilised in session, in clinical review discussion/planning and as ongoing professional development for our clinicians. Activity and usage has been tracked by the analytics feature of the sharepoint to inform areas of development and interest.

Lessons learnt

The Hub is user friendly, however, did take some time to ensure that all clinicians felt confident to utilise. Ongoing training and support is provided in person where possible or via Microsoft Teams.

The Hub can not be a static resource and requires constant review and updating as the most recent evidence and guidelines are released. To ensure that this occurs the maintenance of the sharepoint had to be included within the Therapeutic Interventions Coordinator's role description.