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Appalling discharge

Posted By snowdz63

"Appalling discharge"

About: Graylands Hospital

(as a staff member posting for a patient/service user),

The youth mental health service I work in (which is funded for mild to moderate young people and early intervention) received, in the post, a discharge summary that I recall took around 8 days to arrive for an extremely vulnerable, young Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander patient. I believe the young person was in no way eligible for our service. We received no phone call to be included in any type of discharge planning where I felt we could have indicated the inappropriateness of our service.

I believe the young person was discharged with no referral to the local state system service on follow up with Graylands from this service and I believe has been, for the time since discharge, unsupported, highly medicated and high risk. Our service has navigated the system, indicated our inability to have the young person as a client and instructed that we feel the young person needs WACHS support asap. I believe this has been communicated to the RMO (registered medical officer) on the discharge summary.

In my opinion, this is an example of poor communication from the acute system with any discharge planning and displays a lack of due diligence in finding the right service for discharge and referral for a highly vulnerable person who displays little ability to navigate a regional mental health system.....because they are mentally ill.

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Responses

Response from Karen Kyriakou, A/Executive Director, NMHS Mental Health, Public Health and Dental Services 2 years ago
Karen Kyriakou
A/Executive Director,
NMHS Mental Health, Public Health and Dental Services

Submitted on 8/02/2022 at 1:00 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 1:00 PM

Dear snowdz63,

Thank you for your feedback regarding the discharge of this young person to regional Western Australia. I am glad that the young person was able to get the assistance they required when they returned home and that they are safe. As I understand, the young person was initially referred for mental health treatment from a non-government agency and then requested to return to the same agency on discharge with support of their GP. As previous efforts to support this young person to engage with public mental health services were not successful, we wanted to ensure the patient remained engaged with a service they identified as important to them. We seek to be guided by the consumer as to the services they wish to engage with and we are sorry that this person was not suitable for your service.

I understand your frustration regarding communication, and this has been addressed with the clinical team. Thank you for the phone call to the RMO. Please know the RMO responded immediately to address the young person’s needs. The community mental health service was already in contact with this young person and the case manager was following up with the family. Your feedback has highlighted the need for improved clinical communications with both government and non-government agencies and this has been actioned by our service.

Karen Kyriakou

A/Executive Director

Mental Health, Public Health and Dental Services

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