Mental Health
Southern DHB's Mental Health Services staff take considerable pride in their work and enjoy being a part of a dynamic, innovative and forward thinking service, where there is flexibility and opportunity. Strong clinical and managerial partnerships lead service developments in support of our philosophy to provide high quality mental health services that focus on wellness, respect, dignity and acceptance for consumers/tangata whaiora and their families/whanau; and to be supportive and collegial with colleagues. Our multi-disciplinary teams include Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Nurses, Counsellors, Occupational Therapists, Social Workers and Community Support Workers. With fully Accredited and Certified services, we are a quality-driven service that strives for continuous quality improvement at every level. The service is strongly community based, with an integrated model of care which uses the "Strengths Model" as its philosophical base underpinning care delivery. With a strong clinical governance model, and approximately 180 FTE, we provide a range of community based and inpatient mental health services from multi-disciplinary teams located in Invercargill, Gore and Queenstown. Services include:
There is also access to South Island inpatient regional specialist services such as Forensic (medium secure inpatient), Mothers and Babies Unit, Eating Disorders, Youth, Residential Alcohol and Drug services and specialist advice as required, all connected through a broadcast quality video conferencing system. Southern DHB's Mental Health Services have a real commitment to ongoing education and workforce development with an annually planned education and training strategy. A number of staff undertake and complete post graduate study, supported by the service. The service also enjoys well resourced information systems support and video-conferencing on all sites to connect teams together. As part of our teaching hospital status, our Mental Health Services offer:
New graduate staff joining our services will find they have significant support and encouragement, with our more experienced staff being only too happy to share their knowledge and expertise to support you. As a division, the staff have created an open and welcoming culture that supports all mental health professionals joining the team and we welcome the new ideas and knowledge that experienced practitioners bring with them. As a service, there is a focus on developing a robust Reward and Recognition Strategy for our skilled multidisciplinary workforce. We are also focused on continuing to grow services such as programmes for children of parents with mental illness; development of older people's mental health services; primary care services and further expansion of services for children and adolescents. A key strength of our service is the collaborative approach between Southern DHB mental health services and the district's wider mental health sector, through the development of the Southland Mental Health Network - "Future Directions". Designed and initiated by Southern DHB, the Southland Mental Health Network includes a range of key provider and consumer stakeholders including general practitioners, intersectoral agencies (income support, justice etc), NGO providers and consumer and family representatives. The "Future Directions" network has created an integrated system of care for clients and is beginning to see true continuity in care provision as a result. Please visit the Future Directions website for more information. Southern DHB's Mental Health services offer diverse and progressive career opportunities within a friendly, professional work environment. We welcome your enquiry - please see our current vacancies or contact our Human Resources team. |
