SA Health have purpose built three Intermediate Care Centres which are
also known as ICCs.
The ICCs are residential facilities, which are located
in close to mental health services,
and provide short term individualised recovery oriented care and support.
So, some of the beneficial aspects of the ICC are that developing a
home-like atmosphere where consumers feel supported,
accepted, and included by having them play an active role in
their wellness planning, and targeting social supports to their particular needs,
so this includes things such as collaborative therapy, which provides a consumer with a
self management approach to recovery and offsets the need for acute inpatient stays.
The aim of the ICCs is to provide a therapeutic, home-like environment
we are very recovery focussed, that's our goal for our clients,
so generally they could expect to stay here for up to two weeks.
Not everybody stays that long, some people may only come for three or four,
or five days respite. The ICCs work very closely with key workers,
or care coordinators in the community,
and families and support networks for the consumer, and with that,
our multi disciplinary team, including the carer and the consumer consultant
link very closely with the consumer's support network, which includes families
and partners, and relatives.
I've been coming in and out of hospital for the last,
I would say, roughly twenty years,
and watched the mental health system change over the years,
where you'd just get locked up for ages.
To where it is now,
and it's a lot better now, but compared to the ICCs, even better than going into
hospital or a ward, and if you can avoid that
you can have someone around to help you get over
whatever you're going through at the time, and then get back home,
back to your normal life a lot quicker,
and feel a lot better about it.
People stay at ICCs after an acute inpatient admission, or may come in from
home when they are unwell,
and need short term intensive care to avoid further deterioration and avoid
the need to go to hospital.
The ICCs are part of the stepped system of care which seeks to bridge the gap
between community care and hospital care, and provide access to intensive clinical
treatment and multidisciplinary rehabilitation.
The ICCs are staffed twenty four-hours-a-day, seven days a week.
The ICC residences are comfortable and home-like, they have private rooms with
lockable doors. There are also some shared facilities which include a fully
equipped laundry, kitchen and lounge area. Each unit has a telephone and all are
air-conditioned with access to a courtyard.
All ICCs are drug, alcohol and smoke free, and have on-site car parking.
So we run groups everyday, Monday to Friday we run a group called
collaborative therapy.
All our staff are trained in facilitating that group,
and there are ten sessions, so for the person who stays for two weeks, they generally would
have the whole ten sessions,
and it's a program that concentrates on optimal health,
and how to achieve that, how to reduce stress in your life,
and how to recognise early warning signs.
So, the NGOs and community workers, staff, consumers,
everyone that's involved, we try to include them to come along to all the
meetings and the reviews, so that the transition
from one service to the next is flowing, it's seamless,
and it also provides the holistic care to make sure all the aspects in a
consumer's life are covered and they can,
get the support they need in different areas, no matter where they are in their recovery journey.
The carer consultant is a relatively new role.
I'm what they call 'a lived-experience staff member', so, I'm a carer,
I have an adult son who has a mental illness, and I'm employed to support carers
of the residents when they come in.
In supporting them, that would be providing them with the information,
having someone to talk to,
who understands what it's like to be a carer for someone you love.
It also involves the carer in supporting the residents,
linking them into support groups, and letting them know what's available
for them out in their community.
Well, my role as a peer specialist, is to encourage recovery,
to say to the client group, and say to the staff, that recovery is possible.
Years ago of course,
mental health was associated with long-term stays and locked wards.
I'm just here to encourage that
people can live very well with a mental illness,
and enjoy life.
There are ninety Intermediate Care places planned for South Australia.
Sixty metropolitan places in four, fifteen bed Intermediate Care Centres,
and thirty places in the country.
The Southern ICC is located in the middle of the southern suburb of Noarlunga.
The Western ICC is located in Queenstown, and is close to Port Adelaide.
The Eastern ICC is located in the Burnside local government area.
There is an ICC planned for the Northern suburbs of Adelaide.
All ICCs are located close to shops, community services and facilities, and
public transport.
The beneficial aspects of the ICCs, the feedback I've had from consumers,
are around collaborative therapy groups that are run,
which help consumers get to know themselves better, and how they can manage
some of the stresses that effect their life,
and stress affects everybody's mental health.
They learn coping strategies about how best
they can manage that stress.
Another benefit of the ICCs is that we're recovery oriented,
which means we really respect the fact that
consumers are the experts, and their experience of living with mental illness,
so they get to make a lot of the choices about
the kind of support they need when they're here,
and that might range from just talking to staff in general about concerns,
learning practical or social skills, or just having some time out
to think through some things and having a bit of a break from things
that are causing them anxiety and stress.
I think the benefits of coming to an ICC unit are that we have a multi-disciplinary team,
which is really, really good. We have nurses, we have social workers,
we have an OT worker,
we have peer workers, and we have a carer consultant, so that when a client comes here,
they can, participate and use the knowledge from all of those people,
which is very supportive, and we've all got our different moulds. A social worker would help a
person with one thing, I'll help the family with other things,
and I think that way it's a good team, we work together really well.
We find that the client gets to stay here for the full two weeks,
that when they leave, they leave with a little bit more energy,
a little bit more insight into their illness,
we do collaborative therapy while people are here,
so they get to sit down in the morning, with a group session
and learn coping skills about how to cope with anxiety,
and the OT worker sets up programs, one of them is a
going home group,
so how to get people skills for when they're ready to go home and,
relaxation techniques, so here they get
a full gamut of different services, all in the one building.
We like to look at it like that, and I think that's a big benefit.
It's very relaxed here,
you get to do what you want, to a degree, and come and go as you want.
You get into a daily routine, which helps when you go back home.
I think that a really beneficial aspect of the ICC,
is the fact that people are encouraged to take charge of their own wellbeing, their own care,
and their own medications. We've seen people achieve lots of positive goals here,
developing confidence and identifying their own particular
early warning signs, and enhancing their practical living and social skills,
which helps them achieve improved outcomes once they're back in the community.
Thank you for taking the time to hear about the ICCs.
Please talk to your mental health care coordinator if you are interested in
finding out more information.