STAFF

Policy and Services Research

Harvey Whiteford Click Here For Biography

Philip Burgess , Professor, Mental Health Services Research, Click for Bio

Clare Townsend , Principal Policy Analyst

Geoffrey Waghorn , Senior Research Officer, Click for Bio

Meredith Harris, Senior Research Officer

An Pham, Research Assistant

Francis Gilfedder, Research Assistant

 

Mental Health Economics

Darrel Doessel , Associate Professor, Mental Health Economics, Click for Bio

Roman Scheurer, Research Officer

Ruth Williams, Research Associate

Sue Gargett, PhD student

 

WORC Project

Michael Hilton , Project Director, Click for Bio

Cathy Cleary, Project Co-ordinator

Judith Sheridan , Senior Clinical Psychologist

Sarah-Jane Middleton, Psychologist Care Manager

Karleigh Kwapil, Psychologist Care Manager

Alice Morgan, Psychologist Care Manager

Denae Bacon, Psychologist Care Manager

Alexander Chojnacki, Psychologist Care Manager

Kathy Urselmann, Administrative Assistant

 

Statistical Consultant

David Chant , Principal Research Fellow

ABOUT OUR WORK

Mental disorders cause more disability in Australia than any other group of disorders and depression causes more disability than any other single disorder. Most people with a mental disorder do not receive treatment and treatment services are not delivered in the most efficient and effective way. Reducing the burden of these disorders requires equitable and cost effective prevention, early intervention, treatment and recovery programs.

The research of the Policy and Economics Group is in:

  • Mental health policy analysis – how to design the best mental health policy
  • Structural reform of mental health services – how best to implement policy
  • Developing measures of service performance – what outcomes are we getting from policy when it is implemented
  • Measuring the impact of mental disorder on role functioning and productivity – what are the broader social and economic benefits of investing in mental health

Our research aims to inform and influence how governments and the private sector design and implement programs in mental health.

 

POLICY DEVELOPMENT AND ANALYSIS

  • The revision of the Australian National Mental Health Policy

Led by Harvey Whiteford and Clare Townsend our group has been selected by Australian Health Ministers to lead the rewriting of the National Mental Health Policy. This builds on our involvement in the National Mental Health Strategy over the past ten years.

  • South East Europe Mental Health Project

Led by Clare Townsend we worked in the South East Europe Mental Health Project “Enhancing Social Cohesion through Strengthening Community Mental Health Services in South Eastern Europe ”. The research lead to the establishment of a model community mental health service in each participating country and will address policy implementation and leadership in mental health reform. The project is considered a best-practice model for other projects being undertaken as part of the work of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe-Social Cohesion Initiative.

  • The Domains and Elements for Mental Health Policy

Led by Harvey Whiteford and Clare Townsend we were centrally involved in the International Consortium on Mental Health Policy and Services which undertook the Analytical Studies on Mental Health Policy and Services Project. The Project identified the key domains and elements of a National Mental Health Policy for developed and developing countries; the template can be accessed at: Click here to visit the template. We are now conducting a follow-up study with participating countries to examine the effectiveness or otherwise of the template in developing mental health policy and how to improve the process of policy development and reform.

  • Evaluations of Policy Decisions under the National Mental Health Strategy

Led by Darrel Doessel we are undertaking research to evaluate a number of the policy initiatives Australia 's National Mental Health Strategy concerned with improving services for people with mental disorder. The policy changes being investigated include ‘down-sizing', or closing, of psychiatric facilities, ‘main-streaming' the provision of inpatient services and making services more geographically accessible.

 

SERVICE DEVELOPMENT AND REFORM

 

  • Outcomes and Case Complexity Research

The Australian National Mental Health Strategy has emphasised service quality and effectiveness, and stressed that good information systems are necessary to achieve these goals. The systematic implementation of routine outcome measurement has been a priority, and the development of service-level infrastructure was promoted through the Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council (AHMAC) National Mental Health Working Group. The Australian Health Care Agreements require the collection of de-identified, patient-level data from all public sector mental health services for the National Outcomes and Casemix Collection (NOCC). This information is to be used to plan, resource, manage and deliver mental health services in a manner that optimally meets community needs.

The NOCC data will be managed through the Australian Mental Health Outcomes and Classification Network (AMHOCN) which will undertake a work program with three components: a Data Bureau Component; an Analysis and Reporting Component; and a Training and Service Development Component. Further information regarding the project can be found at: http://www.mhnocc.org/amhocn.xml . Led by Philip Burgess our group is responsible for the outcomes analysis, reporting and development component; and the casemix analysis, reporting and development framework component.

 

  • Reducing the Burden of Mental Disorders in Australia

Led by Harvey Whiteford , Philip Burgess , Clare Townsend and Meredith Harris our group is collaborating with the Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression (CRUfAD), University of New South Wales in undertaking a program of research to underpin the National Mental Health Plan 2003-2008. Burden reduction in mental health can be achieved by intervention at the various levels - prevention, self-help, primary care, ambulatory specialist care, inpatient care and rehabilitation. The aims of this research are to generate information on which interventions can be used at each step to achieve maximum burden reduction; identify the cost-effectiveness of each intervention and identify the policy implications of incorporating the interventions in the Australian healthcare system.

 

  • Economic Analyses of Private Fee-for-service Psychiatry

Led by Darrel Doessel we are describing and explaining the various financial outcomes, in terms of net and gross prices for consumers and subsidies for psychiatric services payable by the Commonwealth Government in the private sector. In addition we are evaluating the efficacy of a Commonwealth Government policy that changed the rebates offered to people using a large number of psychiatric services.

 

  • Conceptual Economic Analyses

Led by Darrel Doessel and Ruth Williams we are also considering a number of unique problems in applying economic analysis in the health sector which are magnified when it comes to mental health.

ROLE FUNCTIONING AND PRODUCTIVITY

Role functioning

Led by Geoff Waghorn this work aims to reduce the social and economic marginalisation and secondary disabilities associated with mental illness. This requires research which can improve the longer-term outcomes achieved by non-treatment services such as community case management, disability support, vocational rehabilitation and disability employment services. The work to date has covered labour force participation, employment restrictions, predictors of employment outcomes; stigma countering strategies, education disruption, comorbid substance misuse, work-related subjective experiences, work-related self-efficacy, socially-valued role functioning, and cost-effective approaches to restoring vocational functioning.

 

  • The Work Outcomes Research Cost-Benefit (WORC) Project

Led by Harvey Whiteford and Michael Hilton , the WORC Project is being conducted in collaboration with Harvard Medical School . This is the first Australian study to prospectively quantify the benefits in monetary terms of treating depression in the workplace. The project is screening more than 300,000 employees in Australia across all occupational groups to demonstrate the extent to which the screening and treatment of depression in the labour force will be offset by increases in employee productivity yielding a net gain for companies and society. Preliminary data suggests that the costs of early identification and treatment of persons with depression will be offset by increased work productivity expressed in monetary terms. In Australia , there are no objective data quantifying the return on investment from the employers' perspective, or society, from identifying and treating depression. The study website is http://www.worc.qcmhr.uq.edu.au .