Specialist mental health services are primarily for people with
a serious mental illness/disorder. They provide a tertiary level of
care and are commonly highly trained psychologists and
psychiatrists who also have decided to specialise in a particular
field, for example eating disorders.
Specialist mental health services also respond to people who are
experiencing significant/acute levels of disturbance due to their
disorder such as a suicide intervention. Generally, these will be
people with a diagnosis of a major mental illness, such as
schizophrenia but will also include some people with other
conditions such as severe personality disorder, severe anxiety
disorder, or those who are in a situational crisis which may lead
to severe self-harm or inappropriate/dangerous behaviour towards
others.
Specialist mental health services will provide assistance to
those individuals who display an acute level of severity of the
disturbance and impairment. It appears that those who require
specialist mental health service seem to have more than one
disorder and it appears that drug and alcohol (AOD) related
disorders (or dual diagnosis) are the most common.
If a young person in your care is need of psychological crisis
assistance, there are services that operate 24 hours a day and
provide urgent community-based assessment and short-term treatment
interventions. These teams are given different names dependent upon
the area of Australia you are in and have a key role in deciding
the most appropriate treatment option and in screening all
potential inpatient admissions. These services provide intensive
community treatment and support during the acute phase sometimes as
an alternative to going into hospital. Crisis teams also provide a
service to selected hospital emergency departments through an
onsite presence. You can access a crisis team by contacting your
local hospital or calling emergency services.