Liaison Psychiatry with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

Abstract

The range of mental health problems referred and types of diagnoses made in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples reflect what has been previously reported, particularly in relation to comorbidity. Aboriginal ethnicity was variably identified and Aboriginal health workers, general practitioners and families were not routinely involved in consultation-liaison psychiatry assessments, highlighting an opportunity to improve communication and the quality of patient care.

Undertaking a Fellowship in Indigenous Mental Health

“…The study findings highlighted areas of strengths and deficits, which should inform and improve psychiatric service delivery to Indigenous peoples in the general hospital. 6 …”

“…Such information would potentially highlight areas of clinical strengths and weaknesses in order to improve the delivery of culturally appropriate consultation-liaison psychiatry services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. 6 The research project developed from these initial ideas. Different skills were acquired during this process including gaining an in-depth knowledge of and critically appraising the relevant literature, broadly consulting with Aboriginal community representatives and clinicians, and completing ethics applications and learning how to respond to the comments of ethics committees.…”

“…3,6 Valuable skills acquired included gaining competence in writing for publication and confidence in discussing the work in research and clinical fora.…”

Developing an instrument for assessing fidelity of motivational care planning: The Aboriginal and Islander Mental health initiative adherence scale

“…In the Northern Territory, researchers have sought to address these barriers to engagement of Indigenous Australians within the health system [9–11]. Two key barriers to achieving robust health outcomes are identification of effective and culturally appropriate means for transferring research into practice, [10] and the limited number of measures available to assess the quality of service delivery [12].…”

Measuring cultural appropriateness of mental health services for Australian Aboriginal peoples in rural and remote Western Australia: a client/clinician's journey

“…Currently, measuring 'Discharge against advice' is considered the most reliable measure of user satisfaction, although again it is not possible to tease out the issues for self-discharge and these data are not publicly available. Given that it is well known that Aboriginal people suffer mental health issues at a much higher rate than non-Aboriginal people (Wand, Corr, & Eades, 2009), a higher admission rate would be expected. This leaves services that are committed to giving quality services in a quandary.…”