Changing triage process for mental health
A moving co-design workshop to refine the triage process for clients seeking mental health support was recently hosted by JewishCare NSW.
A MOVING co-design workshop to refine the triage process for clients seeking mental health support was recently hosted by JewishCare NSW.
Chief mental health development officer Talya Rabinovitz coordinated the workshop with case worker Jodi Tocatly to ensure that there was a cross-section of people from professional services coupled with people with lived experience.
“Many years ago, when I was doing my clinical training, I would sit in lectures learning about disorder after disorder and how to treat them using cognitive behavioural therapy,” said Rabinovitz.
“What struck me most at the time, is that we never spoke about the person experiencing the disorder … just the set of symptoms and how to assess, diagnose and treat them. This wasn’t person-centred psychology, it was illness-centred psychology. I had a problem with it then and I’ve got an even bigger problem with it now.
“While there is a lot to be said for a rigorous medical approach to mental health, I soon realised when I started treating actual real people, that leaving the human out of the illness is what makes us feel stigmatised, unseen and devalued. This adds a layer of avoidable suffering around the pain, for the person who first presented for help.
“Maybe that’s why I got shivers and teared up at our co-design workshop this month. The workshop brought together carers, people with a lived experience and experts, to help JewishCare envision a new version of mental health triage.”
NSW mental health commissioner Catherine Lourey attended the second day of the workshop and engaged in a robust conversation with carers, as they shared their beliefs about how the mental health system could improve.
The input of experts and the best practice research that is drawn from is essential, but hearing first-hand the pain, frustration and distress community members have experienced in their engagement with the mental health system, has made the organisation even more determined to co-design a triage and intake service that is truly person-centred and trauma-informed.
JewishCare CEO Gary Groves shared his own experience during his time in the police, before simply adding, “We have to do better.”
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