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Regional NSW Mental Assesments Via Video Conference |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Friday, 09 November 2007 |
A new videoconferencing network developed by the New South Wales Government Greater Southern Area
Health Service (GSAHS) and built by Dimension Data is connecting mental health patients in small hospitals to specialist care at major hospitals
across the region.
Dimension
Data implemented the clinical-grade IP videoconferencing system for
GSAHS.
The new video link capabilities enable more Riverina region
mental health
patients to stay in their home towns for treatment and was launched by
the Minister Assisting the Minister for
Health (Mental Health) Paul Lynch in Narrandera as part of the Mental
Health Emergency Care Strategy.
The first of its type in New South
Wales, the
video conferencing network is being hailed as an innovative approach to
the treatment of mental
health patients in rural areas.
"The NSW Government is backing
this vital resource with funding of $1.4 million a year," he said. The Commonwealth is also funding the
network under the Clever Networks broadband project.
Lynch said the initiative
provided virtual assessment, diagnosis and treatment of mental health patients
by a state-of-the-art videoconference link between the Emergency Departments at
outlying hospitals to a Mental Health clinician at a base hospital.
"Broadband technology means
that doctors will be able to prescribe treatment across vast distances without
the need for the patient to travel many hours from their homes to a major
hospital," he said.
"More patients are able to
remain in their local community for treatment with on-going support provided by
local mental health services," Lynch said.
"The initiative also aims to
improve the co-ordination and transfer of patients to specialist mental health
units if required," he said.
The project, which is currently
being rolled out across GSAHS, will be available in 43 hospitals by the end of
2008.
These hospitals will be linked to
Support Centres at mental health in-patient units attached to the base
hospitals at Wagga Wagga, Albury and Goulburn.
To date, eight sites - Junee,
Temora, Narrandera, West Wyalong, Leeton, Hay,
Hillston and Griffith - have been linked to the Wagga Wagga Base Hospital
Support Centre at the inpatient mental health unit, Gissing House.
Rollout of the next phase, across
the Albury region, will begin in the next few months.
GSAHS is providing on-going
education and training to non-mental health nursing and clinical staff at the
hospitals to enhance skills and enable them to provide support to the
clinicians involved in the initiative.
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