Armadale Mental Health sets the bar
BECOMING the first metropolitan partnership to deliver a co-located Individual Placement & Support (IPS) service in Western Australia has meant Armadale Mental Health Services and ORS Group now offer jobseekers' living with mental health issues a significant advantage in realising their employment goals and potential.
Armadale Mental Health formalised its IPS partnership with ORS Group in late February after deciding to implement the process in August last year.
It’s hoped this monumental achievement will inspire other mental health services in both rural and metropolitan WA to adopt international best practice, IPS and assist people living with a mental illness to find work.
ORS Group has existing IPS partnerships in place in New South Wales with several sites in Bankstown, five in the Hunter Valley and four in Sydney.
Armadale Mental Health has known about IPS since 2011, when Centre for Mental Health Research Head of Social Inclusion and Recovery Dr Geoffrey Waghorn visited Perth to advocate the benefits of IPS on recovery for individuals with mental health issues.
However, it took WA Association for Mental Health IPS state project lead Philleen Dickson’s enthusiasm and unwavering support for the competitive employment model to help get it off the ground in the west.
“We knew the value, we knew it was evidence based practice, it’s been around for many years, the literature is out there, and with the help of Philleen driving it we were finally able to implement it,” Armadale Health Service community mental health rehabilitation service coordinator Jyoti Manik told WAAMH eNews.
Armadale Mental Health’s community rehabilitation service, HORIZONS had traditionally focused on prevocational training using older models of preparing people for employment.
“We were very keen to incorporate and adapt some of what we’re doing to be a bit more contemporary in our practice and that’s why IPS was very attractive for us to explore further,” Manik said.
“We presented it to our executive and leadership team who were keen to set up a partnership with a Disability Employment Service.”
Armadale Mental Health now has a very experienced, vibrant and warm IPS specialist on board and she’d already gathered eight potential referrals from registered mental health consumers within her first two days.
Within a few months, Manik hopes most of these people will be engaged with paid employment.
“Employment is a big part of people’s recovery journey,” Manik said.
“It can reduce hospital admissions, it can reduce hospital stays in terms of people having something to go back to, and it increases their financial stability and social interactions. It adds meaning to people’s lives.
“It’s a better quality of life for people if they’re able to stay out of hospital. This is a model that has been shown to do that well.”
Philleen Dickson said Armadale Mental Health Service were amazing.
“They were receptive, pro-active and willing to take all the steps to implement the IPS model,” she said.
When Armadale Mental Health Service was selecting a Disability Employment Service to work with in order to make IPS a reality onsite, it was seeking a group with understanding of IPS principles, a focus on recovery, consumer choice, and diversity.
These qualities, coupled with previous experience, made the ORS Group’s application stand out above other organisations in the competitive application process.
ORS Group national marketing manager Marina Chalmers told WAAMH eNews the reason why they wanted to get involved with IPS was because it aligned with their principles of everyone being employable and wanted to make a difference in the community.
“We believe we can execute it well because of our experience over east and have performed highly in previous fidelity reviews and assessments,” Chalmers said. “We really want to have performance alongside the international benchmark for IPS and help clients find work.”
Within the IPS guidelines, it is expected jobseekers meet with an employer face-to-face within the first four to six weeks of referring to their IPS specialist.
“Once they start work, we provide them with post-placement support for the first 26 weeks, with minimum fortnightly contact,” Chalmers said. “Once that six month mark hits we move into ongoing support, it depends on each situation how frequent the follow ups need to be.”
If there is a relapse at nine months, for example, the employer or client can contact ORS to help organise a solution to maintain that employment for the individual.
With reports indicating people with mental illness want work, see employment as feasible, important to their recovery, and often as an unmet need, it’s surprising IPS hasn’t caught on sooner in WA, especially given its success in the eastern states and around the world.
Factor in the estimated annual cost of $10 to $15 billion in productivity losses attributable to unemployed people with a mental illness, and the argument for a modern approach to finding people meaningful work through the IPS model, becomes even stronger.
“If someone is interested in IPS and the current program they are working with doesn’t have it, they should be talking to the hospital and trying to encourage them to start an IPS program or they can link up with an employment service provider,” Chalmers said.
Continued support and promotion of IPS at more mental health service sites is essential if employment outcomes are to be realised for people living with a mental health problem and looking to improve their quality of life.
Without WAAMH driving it, these ideal outcomes are unlikely.
With more IPS sites expected in the South West, Bentley and Fremantle this year, these programs have only gained momentum due to Philleen’s involvement and dedication.
“Philleen was totally invaluable to the process,” Manik said.
“She works with us every step of the way, providing support and guidance, encouragement and is flexible to meet our needs. She brings that knowledge and enthusiasm.”
Chalmers said WAAMH had been instrumental in bringing IPS to WA and promoting it.
“Since we’ve been awarded Armadale, Philleen has been instrumental in terms of support, helping us set up the relationship, monitoring the relationship, giving us ideas, feedback, and ensuring our documents are in line with IPS standard,” Chalmers said.
“If I have any questions I can call Philleen and talk to her. She is so passionate about the program and so motivated to see it succeed.
“It’ so great knowing there is another organisation out there, besides the hospital and us that are really partnering with IPS and wanting to see its success.”
The Armadale Mental Health IPS Steering Group. From left: ORS Group IPS specialist Rosalia Dorner; Consumer Advisory Group chairperson Beverly Barndon; Armadale Mental Health Service operations manager Andrew Nesci; Armadale Mental Health Service senior social worker Barry Hughes; HORIZONS community mental health rehabilitation service coordinator Jyoti Manik; WAAMH IPS state project lead Philleen Dickson; ORS Group national marketing manager Marina Chalmers; Armadale Health Service principal occupational therapist Gail Nesci.