NSW Family & Carer Mental Health Program
The Family and Carer Mental Health Program addresses the needs of families and carers through a strongly linked service model that recognises the need for:
Family-friendly mental health services
The Program supports the development of mental health services so that families and carers are recognised, supported and included in treatment planning and service provision.
Mental health family and carer support
The four NGOs supplying the Mental Health Family and Carer Support Service provide not only education and training to build coping skills and resilience but also support services including direct provision of individual support, information, advocacy and peer support.
Generic family and carer supports
The program will support awareness of, and access to, mainstream support services such as counselling, respite and financial support.
Partnerships
The NGOs will form partnerships in order to provide comprehensive support. The key partners are:
- Families and carers
- Consumers
- Area Mental Health Services
- Other NGOs working with families and carers (not funded by this program)
- Generic and family carer support providers (e.g. carer support officers)
- Respite service providers
Mental health family and carer support
Direct support services for families and carers are provided by the following NGOs in each Area Health Service (AHS):
Carer Assist
- Greater Southern AHS
- Hunter New England AHS
- Sydney South West AHS
Carers NSW (Tel: 02 9280 4744 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 02 9280 4744 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or 1800 242 636 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1800 242 636 end_of_the_skype_highlighting)
- Greater Western AHS
- North Coast AHS
- Sydney South East/Illawarra AHS
ARAFMI (Tel: 02 9332 0700 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 02 9332 0700 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or 1800 655 198 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1800 655 198 end_of_the_skype_highlighting)
- Northern Sydney/Central Coast AHS
Uniting Care Mental Health (Tel: 02 8842 8289 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 02 8842 8289 end_of_the_skype_highlighting)
Outcomes
- Improved family/carer wellbeing
- Improved outcomes for consumers
- Increased family and carer knowledge and ability to manage caring role effectively
- Families and carers are supported to have continuous involvement
- Referral of families and carers to support/training by the mental health service
- Open communication between services about family/carer issues
- Consistency of services and support across NSW
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