Southern DHB leading the way

Southern DHB leading the way with working with the children of parents with mental illness and/or addiction (COPMIA)

Newly developed national guidelines for Adult Mental Health Services in relation to the children of parents with mental illness and/or addiction (COPMIA) will be published by the Ministry of Health in August 2015. However, Southern District Health Board is off to a flying start, having already released its own Southern COPMIA guidelines in February, which they hope will serve as a model for other regions.

The national guideline aims to increase the capability of health professionals working with children of parents with mental illness and/or addiction. It will provide guidance regarding the implementation of systems, policies and practices to identify and address the needs of these children and their families and to achieve systemic change across services. The national guideline is currently out for consultation but is on track to be released for implementation in August.

Southern DHB has been working on its Southern COPMIA initiative since March 2014 by establishing a multi-disciplinary working group to carry out a literature review and make recommendations about how the service could: address the requirements in Rising to the Challenge to support vulnerable children and their parents; put appropriate systems for practice change in place; and better meet the requirements of the Southern DHB’s mental health and addictions strategic plan: Raise Hope- Hapai te Tumanako 2012 - 2015

“The working group made six significant recommendations and progress is being made with them all. A COPMIA advisor is being added to as many teams as possible to support clinicians to really change the attitude and culture around identifying and supporting vulnerable children and their parents,” said Karen Ramsay, Allied Health Director, Mental Health addiction and Intellectual Disability Directorate.

The Mental Health addiction and Intellectual Disability Directorate (MHAID) is also working hard to link up with all the NGOs and services across the southern area to establish integrated referral processes and a consistent approach.

Matua Raki, national workforce centre for Addictions noted in their newsletter that Southern DHB MHAID service is at the forefront in New Zealand of developing a system that recognises the parenting responsibility of our service-users who are parents.

“Our focus is on a family/whanau inclusive model that supports parents, identifies the presence of previously “hidden” children and integrates support for their whanau/family with an across sector approach.

“The impetus for this work was initially the deep commitment of our clinicians and managers within MHAID, along with our growing awareness that COPMIA and their parents were not being identified in a consistent manner across our services, and we are delighted with the outcome,” said Ms Ramsay.

The MHAID COPMIA Guidelines for Clinicians at Southern DHB were launched in December 2014 with an official start date of 23rd February 2015.

ENDS

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