- Title
- Early psychosis services for rural and remote communities: where are they?
- Creator
- Stain, Helen J.; Satore, Gina; Blinkhorn, Susan; Andrews, Doug
- Relation
- The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Joint CINP/ASPR Scientific Meeting. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, Volume 39, Supplement 2 (Brisbane, Australia 7–9 December, 2005) p. A67-A68
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-1614.2005.01731.x
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Resource Type
- conference paper
- Date
- 2005
- Description
- Aim: To investigate access to care and service delivery for rural and remote residents experiencing early psychosis. Background: An effective means of reducing disability from psychotic disorders is the provision of early detection and intervention targeted at the prodromal phase. Research has led to the reliable identification of individuals at risk of developing a psychotic disorder (Yung et al., 1998) and assisted in the development of preventative interventions in clinical settings (French & Morrison, 2004). However while intervention programs have been trialled for early psychosis (EP), there has been a lack of research directed towards EP service delivery for rural and remote communities (RARC). Method: This paper presents an analysis of routine clinical mental health service data for 10–25 year old patients across three rural regions in New South Wales. A large data set (N = 1562) for the Central West region was compared to smaller data sets for a remote region and a coastal region. Demographic, clinical and service features were analysed against characteristics specific to RARC. Clinical measures included the HoNOSCA, HoNOS and SDQ. Results: EP patients in the CentralWest represented 10.44% of patients accessing mental health services, but utilised services twice as often as non EP patients and absorbed 37.60% of inpatient service encounters. Although 42.94% of EP patients were under 18 years of age, only 11.98% of EP clinical encounters were seen by child and adolescent services. The median distance to access services was 88 km (range 0–895 km). These results were compared to findings for EP patients from the remote and coastal regions. Conclusion: The results raise a number of implications for delivery of intervention services for early psychosis in RARC, including access to age appropriate services with limited disruption to family.
- Subject
- work and vocational rehab; social psychiatry; rural and remote communities; psychosis services
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/28829
- Identifier
- uon:2242
- Identifier
- ISSN:0004-8674
- Language
- eng
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