Department of Health

Fourteen health services constitute the Victorian aged clinical mental health system.

Specialist mental health services for people aged 65 years and over provide services for people with long-standing mental illness or those who have developed functional illnesses in later life.

These services are commonly known as Aged Persons Mental Health (APMH) services, and they are also for older people with psychiatric or severe behavioural difficulties associated with organic disorders such as dementia.

Service components include community-based APMH teams, acute inpatient services, intensive community treatment programs and residential care.

Community-based APMH services are delivered through multidisciplinary teams that provide specialist expertise in medical assessment and treatment, psychological, behavioural, social and functional assessments and a range of therapeutic interventions.

Acute inpatient services for older people are located with other aged care facilities and general hospitals. In some rural areas acute inpatient beds for older people are located with an adult inpatient unit.

Reviewed 28 May 2015

Health.vic

Was this page helpful?