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Individual Placement and Support (IPS) | May 2016

Get Into Work

Welcome to the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) bi-monthly newsletter, published by the peak body for community mental health, the Western Australian Association for Mental Health (WAAMH).

In this Issue:
• Fidelity Review Manual – Dartmouth release third edition
• IPS supporting young people with their vocational aspirations
• Getting to the core: benefits counselling
• Youth career planning features at WA Mental Health Conference
• How does the National Health Service in England value IPS?

Fidelity Review Manual – Dartmouth release third edition

Whether you are an IPS program champion, a seasoned specialist or member of an IPS steering committee, the latest edition of the Dartmouth Fidelity Review Manual will give you insights into the process of a fidelity review and examples of how fidelity items are scored.

Nine comprehensive chapters provide instructions, examples and clarification on scoring fidelity items when reviewing IPS supported employment services. The third edition aims to improve the accuracy of scores with a focus on the 25 fidelity items which remain unchanged.

Download your own copy here and share amongst relevant committee and team members to enhance your understanding and improve your IPS program.

Picture sourced from sites.dartmouth.edu

IPS supporting young people with their vocational aspirations

picture of college students

Many young people who experience mental health conditions want to work or be involved in some type of training. For a multitude of reasons, this is not always possible. Stigma, discrimination from family, friends, professionals and members of the community, and impacts caused by persistent symptoms are just some of the things that can hold a person back from reaching their employment or study goals.

In their latest research bulletin on vocational interventions for young people, Orygen identified further barriers which included;

  • difficulty accessing employment support services in the early stages of illness;
  • employment services unable to provide an appropriate level of support to young people with severe mental illness;
  • vocational staff having high caseloads, and;
  • a strong focus on assessing a person’s readiness to return to work prior to implementing an intervention. 

Learn more about how IPS, if implemented correctly, can improve employment outcomes for young people with a lived experience of early psychosis. Click here.

Picture sourced from ntyan.com.au

Getting to the core: benefits counselling

An IPS program follows 8 core practice principles with the aim of improving employment outcomes for people with severe and persistent mental health conditions. Work incentives planning or benefits counselling is one of the IPS core practice principles. 

It is necessary that job seekers receive timely information to guide their decisions around accepting and starting a new job, determining hours of work and rates of pay. Accurate information will allow an individual to determine the impact on their income support payments and entitlements and make informed choices based on their personal circumstances.

The fear of losing a benefit or entitlement can deter individuals from seeking employment. IPS employment specialists lead job seekers to relevant community organisations for additional support or can guide them through sources of information to explore how and if their benefits may be affected. 

Check out your Centrelink income testing link here.

Youth career planning features at WA Mental Health Conference

Headspace Joondalup, a service delivered by Black Swan Health Ltd, recently shared how their Youth Early Psychosis Program has implemented IPS within their Functional Recovery Team at the WA Mental Health Conference. Headspace Joondalup are one of three metropolitan sites currently following the IPS model, with Osborne Park and Midland also currently implementing the service.

Headspace concentrates on the strengths, hopes and career aspirations of young people recognising first hand that work is a powerful part of an individual’s recovery. Focusing on a small caseload, integrating support with clinical care and following individual preferences are just some of the features of headspace's IPS program.

The headspace presenter enabled conference participants to reflect on their own career journeys and posed questions about values and their connection to career pathways.

For more information about the headspace Youth Early Psychosis Program click here.

Picture sourced from headspace.org.au

How does the National Health Service in England value IPS?

The UK's independent Mental Health Taskforce National Health Service (NHS) released their Five Year Forward View for Mental Health report in February 2016. The report outlined that employment was vital to health and should be recognised as a health outcome, confirming the importance of services like IPS.

Consumers expressed in the report that their main ambition was to have a decent place to live, a job or good quality relationships in their local communities. But the NHS believes this will only happen with a cross-government approach.

The report acknowledged stable employment and housing as factors contributing to good mental health and recovery. The report recommends that by 2020/21, each year up to 29,000 more people living with mental health problems should be supported to find or stay in work through increasing access to psychological therapies for common mental health problems and expanding access to IPS.

What would Australia look like if our national mental health strategy mirrored that of England?

Read more here.

Picture sourced from https://www.england.nhs.uk

Kind regards
IPS Team
WA Association for Mental Health

WA Association for Mental Health

City West Lotteries House
2 Delhi Street, West Perth
WA 6005

       

 

Tel 08 9420 7277
waamh.org.au
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