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Abstract

Background: The wellness group program assists with early discharges from acute setting, early intervention preventing relapse for mental health consumers who are at moderate to high risk. Based on relapse data for participants as opposed to non-participants and average length of stay the Wellness Program annually saves more than 300 acute bed days and save the service more than half a million dollars in bed costs. The mental health (MH) wellbeing program is an existing holistic therapeutic program to assist older consumers in their recovery journey and assist them to keep well in the community. It acts as a bridge on discharge from hospital setting and assist with community reintegration. The wellness group also works as a preventative vehicle and to minimize relapse in their recovery journey. Aim: To provide support, psycho-education, MH promotion, in order to assist with older person's overall wellbeing, relapse prevention and quality of life in the community. The wellness group encourages the mental health and a sense of wellness amongst recently discharged consumers. The group provides specialist services to consumers with MH problems due to complex psychosocial circumstances and social isolation. Rationale: One of the key strategies to address ongoing bed shortage and readmission is effectively to support consumers� recovery outside the hospital setting through the provision of the community based wellness group program so that the consumers are assisted during their recovery process. Membership of Wellness Group: The wellness group is open to all who are present with mental health issues and suitable for recovery and psychiatric rehabilitation. Outcomes and Evaluation: The program has managed over 120 consumers since it was started 15 years ago. Despite complex and high risk profile of participants, the readmission rate of this patent has been consistently below 20% against standard rate of 50%. Recent Publications 1. Suman Tyagi (1983) Intangibles in Marketing, Indian Institute of Management Journal Vikalpa 8(1):20. 2. J E Cooper et al. (1985) Effects of female sterilization: one year follow up in a prospective controlled study of psychological and psychiatric outcome (S Tyagi as one of the WHO collaborative project investigators). Journal of Psychodynamic Research 29(1):13-22.

Biography

Suman Tyagi is a PhD qualified psychiatric social work clinician with over two decades of recognized, rich and diverse specialist experience within acute hospital and community setting. She is a proven coach, supervisor and a passionate educator who is regularly invited to deliver training programs, lectures and awareness-raising seminars by organizations in the mental health fields. She is a member of Clinical Advisory Committee, Older Person Mental Health (OPMH) Policy Unit-Ministry of Health and a Chair Person of External Advisory Committee for applied mental health studies, Higher Education Training Institute (HETI) and NSW Institute of Psychiatry. She is a committed social work clinician, recognized as an expert who believes in evidence based best clinical practice and promotes the mental health agenda for the consumers and careers by active participation at high-level government committees, through participation at various industry events and engagement with public platforms including the media
Email:suman.tyagi@health.nsw.gov.au