SINGAPORE - The Ministry of Health (MOH) will be improving access to
care for mental health patients by developing a new community-based mental
health plan to support hospital-based ones.
This entails specialist-led multi-disciplinary teams being stationed in
the community, so that mental health patients can visit a nearby clinic, rather
than having to travel all the way to the hospital to see a psychiatrist.
Called Assessment and Shared Care Teams (ASCAT), six teams are to be
set up by 2016 to manage up to 9,500 patients at any point in time, starting
with north and central Singapore for 2012.
In addition, MOH will be provided more support to enable GPs to help in
the treatment of patients with mild to moderate mental conditions - such as
anxiety and depression - by expanding counselling and psychotherapy services in
the community.
MOH will also be piloting a helpline to provide information to
community organisations, such as senior activity centres and grassroots
organisations, so that they can assist patients and caregivers in navigating
the range of services available.
Mobile teams of mental health professionals will also provide early
on-site response for potential crisis situations where intervention or closer
assessment is needed, said Dr Khor.
Other initiatives include working with the Alzheimer's Disease
Association to expand the reach of its Elder-sit and Home Intervention
Services, and developing management plans to ensure patients adhere to their
care plans.
Overall, the Health Ministry will be spending over $100 million more to
support such community mental health projects
Not to neglect other hospital and institution-based services for those
with more severe mental disorders, the ministry will expand the capacity of the
specialised outpatient memory clinics in hospitals by about 60 per cent over
the next five years, said Dr Khor.
Over the next five years, MOH will also build two new psychiatric
nursing homes, one additional psychiatric rehabilitation home, and two more
psychiatric sheltered homes at a cost of about $70 million.
This will increase the existing capacity of the psychiatric Immediate
Long-Term Care facilities from 1,000 beds to 1,700 beds.
In conjunction with the above efforts, Dr Khor said MOH will continue
promoting mental health education.
One of the programmes in place is HPB's workplace mental health
promotion grant, which helps to ensure the mental wellbeing of employees and
facilitate early detection and support.
From April this year, the maximum quantum of the grant will be raised
from $2,000 to $5,000.
At a cost of $2.5 million, the grant is targeted to benefit 100,000
employees over the next three years, Dr Khor said.
YourHealth, AsiaOne
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