1. Supporting the vulnerable: developing a strategic community mental health response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Author
-
Thomson, Sumana, Doan, Trung, Liu, Dennis, Schubert, Klaus Oliver, Toh, Julian, Boyd, Mark A, and Galletly, Cherrie
- Subjects
- *
COVID-19 pandemic , *MENTAL health , *PUBLIC health , *COMMUNICABLE diseases , *MENTAL illness treatment , *VIRAL pneumonia , *COVID-19 , *AT-risk people , *EPIDEMICS - Abstract
Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic poses significant risks to the vulnerable patient population supported by community mental health (CMH) teams in South Australia. This paper describes a plan developed to understand and mitigate these risks.Methods: Public health and psychiatric literature was reviewed and clinicians in CMH teams and infectious disease were consulted. Key risks posed by COVID-19 to CMH patients were identified and mitigation plans were prepared.Results: A public health response plan for CMH teams was developed to support vulnerable individuals and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. This plan will be reviewed regularly to respond to changes in public health recommendations, research findings and feedback from patients and clinicians.Conclusions: The strategic response plan developed to address risks to vulnerable patients from COVID-19 can assist other CMH services in managing the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2020
- Full Text
- View/download PDF