Monitoring Care Standards in Non-Government Agencies
The Office of the Chief Psychiatrist has developed a policy on care standards in non-government mental health community support services.
Chief Psychiatrist's Licensed Psychiatric Hostels Care Standards Reviews
One aspect of this policy is the monitoring of care standards in licensed psychiatric hostels. Hostels are privately owned supported accommodation for people with a severe and persistent mental illness. Hostels provide supervised accommodation such as assistance with:
- Medication
- Meals and Drinks
- Care of the immediate environment
- Challenging behaviour management
- Verbal communication
- Personal care management
- Budgeting and financial management
- Personal Hygiene
There are over 530 people living in 17 licensed psychiatric hostels in metropolitan Perth. The majority of consumers in licensed psychiatric hostels have a severe and persistent mental illness, which has a significant impact on their capacity to live independently in the community.
A person has a severe and persistent mental illness, if the following conditions to apply:
The presence of one of the following diagnoses:
- Chronic or recurrent psychosis (such as schizophrenia, bi-polar affective disorders)
- Organic brain disorder associated with significant psychiatric features (such as some chronic sequale associated with brain injury and some medical conditions e.g. Huntingdon's Disease)
- Chronic non-psychotic disorders that may result in functional impairment (Functional impairment refers to a person's inability to undertake successfully the activities associated with daily life and general life independence. This impairment is likely to severely restricts the persons quality of life and their ability to achieve their life goals and needs.) such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder,
- personality disorders which result in functional impairment, self injury, significant behavioral problems.
A seriousness and persistent mental illness means a person's level of functional impairment is such that it interferes with the person's ability to live independently to the extent that they require support with the activities of daily life, and/or their level of impairment is long term and not the result of a short term acute mental illness episode.
The Office of the Chief Psychiatrist has developed a framework and a number of standards that care outcomes at licensed psychiatric hostels are being assessed against. The standards relate to the following five broad divisions:
- Freedom of choice and opportunity to exercise rights - each consumer is to have active control of his or her own life.
- Care Needs - the personal care and supported community living needs of each consumer are to be identified and met.
- Dignity and Privacy - the dignity and privacy of each consumer is to be respected.
- Social Independence and Variety of Experience - each consumer should exercise maximum social independence, and consumers must have opportunity to participate in the variety of activities and experiences of interest to them.
- Home-Like Environment - a Psychiatric Hostel is to assist in the provision of a home-like environment for the comfort, safety and well being of the consumer.
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