COMMUNICATIONS

Changes to Specialist Mental Health Service Management

Changes in the management of Canterbury District Health Board’s Specialist Mental Health Service were announced to staff today.

A greater emphasis on clinical governance and general accountability in SMHS are key to the changes.

“We want to ensure accountability for the management of clinical activity, costs and staff is managed as close to patient care as possible,”said Vince Barry, CDHB’s General Manager Specialist Mental Health Service. “The changes will move us some way towards ensuring we are aligning ourselves with national strategic documents such as Te Tahuhu Improving Mental Health 2005-2015 and providing an increased focus on accessibility and responsiveness for all stakeholders.”

“There are new positions planned which will ensure clinical leadership is cemented within the Mental Health service.

“One of the new positions will be Chief of Psychiatry which will bring the role and title of chief clinician in the SMHS into line with that of other CDHB divisions.” Other positions to be established include two new service manager roles, an increased role for the Director of Nursing and a part time role for a new allied health leader. There is additional resourcing being put into clinical areas and an overall aligning of titles for positions.

Fourteen unit manager positions and the chair of clinical directors position have been disestablished.

“We are confident that all staff will be re-deployed into either new positions that have been created or in other vacancies within the Specialist Mental Health Service,” Vince Barry, said. “All of these people are highly valued members of staff and we want to have them in positions that will help to make our service more robust now and for the future.”

“These changes, which have effectively removed a layer of middle management, are recognition of a maturing service and the need to have a leadership structure to cope with the major shifts in Mental Health Services that we will experience in the next ten years,” Mr Barry said.

There was extensive consultation with staff on the change management proposal for the Specialist Mental Health Service and some aspects of the original proposal have been adjusted to take into account staff feedback. Support is being offered to affected staff during their transition to new positions.

ENDS

Background

The goals of the Specialist Mental Health Service are that people with experience of mental illness and addiction, and their families and whanau are having their needs addressed earlier through access to a broad range and choice of services that are responsive to their communities, and take into account all aspects of their health and wellbeing.

This will be done through a more comprehensive and integrated mental health and addiction system that coordinates early access to effective primary health care, with an improved range and quality of specialist mental health and addiction services that are community based and built on collaborative partnerships

It will be built on a culture of recovery and wellness: that fosters leadership and participation by people affected by mental illness; is supported by workforce that delivers effectively at the interface between cultural and clinical practice and is firmly grounded in a robust evidence base, quality information, innovation and flexible funding mechanisms that support recovery.