Bowral Hospital's Mental Health Consultation Liaison Service

In about 1998 the Bowral Hospital received funding to establish two non-acute mental health beds in the hospital. In part, the initiative for establishing the beds was due to the advocacy of some in the local community who thought that their local hospital should be able to cater for the needs of patients with a mental illness or disorder. It was somewhat challenging for the Bowral Mental Health Service at that time to meet the additional needs of the hospital from within the team's staffing profile at that time. There was an attempt made to recruit a registered nurse to specifically work with the mental health patients while they were in the hospital. Unfortunately the demands of the whole service often meant that the worker was caught up with the delivery of other services, such as crisis management and care coordination, so that time spent at the hospital was less than the ideal. In 2001, enhancement of staff at the Bowral Mental Health Service, and a change of management of the service brought about an opportunity to ensure that a commitment could be made to the hospital and the patients that a dedicated Hospital Mental Health Consultation Liaison Nursing role could be achieved. Not only that, but also the position would be backed up by the remainder of staff in the Bowral Mental Health team. It has been pleasing to both the Bowral Mental Health Service and to the staff of the Bowral Hospital that, since that time, there has been a positive outcome for the patients and hospital staff. The Bowral Mental Health Service has continued to provide a speedy response to calls from the Emergency Department and the hospital wards, for mental health assessments of patients presenting, or being admitted. For three years now, Bowral has also been fortunate to have access to senior Psychiatric Registrars who are doing their rural placements as part of their training towards being registered as Psychiatrists. This has meant that patients in the hospital, with more complex issues and diagnoses, can be medically assessed by the Registrar and Consultant Psychiatrists before being discharged or considered for other outpatient treatments. There is no doubt that the assessment and treatment of patients with mental illnesses and mental disorders has been greatly enhanced by the use of the dedicated Hospital Mental Consultation Liaison Nursing service. This, plus the access to the non-acute beds in the hospital, has meant that people requiring treatment and/or stabilisation have been able to achieve this while remaining within their own community, and in the least restrictive way.