Victoria's Mental Health Services

What's New

 Service Guideline for Gender Sensitivity and Safety

 Service Guideline on Gender Sensitivity and Safety - literature review (PDF, 570kb)

The advice this guideline provides will assist mental health, and alcohol and other drug services in providing a safe environment that takes into account the full spectrum of individual needs which can impact on health and wellbeing.

 Framework for Recovery-oriented Practice

 Recovery-oriented practice - literature review

The Framework for Recovery-oriented Practice identifies the principles, capabilities, practices and leadership that should underpin a recovery-oriented approach to mental health service delivery.

 Improving the physical health of people with severe mental illness: No mental health without physical health

The Improving the physical health of people with severe mental illness: No mental health without physical health report examines the role specialist public mental health services should play, as part of the broader health care system, in reducing the prevalence of common physical health problems, chronic disease and associated risks experienced by people with a severe and enduring mental illness.

The Mental Illness Research Fund (MIRF)

The Mental Illness Reaserch Fund (MIRF) is a Victorian Government initiative aimed at supporting multidisciplinary and cross-sector collaborative research that has the potential to be translated into tangible improvements for Victorians with mental illness and their carers. The Victorian Government is now seeking Victorian researchers, treatment and support providers and other relevant stakeholders to inform the development of research priority areas for the MIRF.

PACER Evaluation Report

The PACER pilot operated in Southern Region from 2007 until late 2011. PACER was a joint crisis response from police and mental health clinicians to people experiencing a behavioural disturbance in the community. In 2011, Allen Consulting Group was commissioned by the Department of Health to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the PACER pilot in managing and resolving mental health crises in the community. The evaluation outlined a number of key findings about the pilot, which the Department of Health will use in its ongoing service improvement and redesign work with mental health services. Victoria Police and the Department of Health will continue to work together to improve responses to people experiencing a crisis in the community.

Mental Health Reform in Victoria

The Psychiatric Disability Rehabilitation and Support Services Reform Framework Consultation paper proposes a significant, staged set of changes to improve outcomes for people with a severe mental illness, and their families and carers. It proposes specific systemic and service delivery improvements needed to build a more efficient and effective system of psychiatric disability rehabilitation and support services. The paper has been developed to seek a range of stakeholders' views and input on the proposed framework.