Health Targets

Timaru Psychiatric Service gets the thumbs up from clients

South Canterbury District Health Board has exceeded the national target of having relapse prevention plans for at least 90 per cent of clients with long-term mental illness.

Former clients of the Timaru Psychiatric Service have also lauded the process of involving them in drawing up their own care plans, saying it has helped set them on the path to recovery.

A relapse prevention plan identifies the early warning signs of a relapse and outlines a plan to help the client avoid it. The document is developed by the client together with his family and a mental health service worker.

Apart from providing a safety net, the process of developing a crisis prevention plan encourages the individual to be the driver of their own care.

“It helps the person identify what strengths they can rely on – in themselves and in the wider community – in case of a crisis. This, in turn, promotes hope, a crucial element that assists people in recovery,” said Lee Cordell-Smith, Acting Service Manager of Timaru Psychiatric Service.

“The knock-on effect from having a crisis plan is that as the person becomes more self-managing, they will progressively be able to reduce the need for acute psychiatric services,” she noted.

In a random survey, 92 per cent of Timaru Psychiatric Service’s former clients said developing the relapse prevention plan helped them learn about their illness and gave them ideas on how to cope with it. Furthermore, more than 80 per cent said they received information about their illness that they actually understood and felt included in decisions and discussions regarding the development of their care plan.

Related information

In this section:
Improving Mental Health Services Target

In other sections in this website:
Mental Health section

On other websites:
Knowing the People Planning website

Page last updated: 10 April 2008