Melbourne Mental Health Clinics to Adopt New Approaches to Schizophrenia Treatment
Serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia have proven difficult to treat. It is clear that orthodox approaches to mental illnesses are not effective for schizophrenia– so why are Australian medical practices continuing heavily flawed treatment?
Melbourne mental health clinic, Clarity Health Care, is setting itself apart with a new multidisciplinary approach to the treatment of serious mental illnesses. They aim to reduce glaring barriers to recovery and innovate the mental health system – and they are already seeing positive results.
Why are Serious Mental Illnesses Difficult to Treat?
Serious mental illnesses are a category of mental illness where the impacts are long term and intense, affecting work and schooling, relationships and self-care. Already dealing with the stress of a serious mental illness, clients can find treatment adds to the overwhelm. They may also feel resistant to treatment due to previous failed attempts where they didn’t feel heard or found the process exhausting.
Treating serious mental illness can be complex and difficult due to client:
- Misdiagnosis
- Comorbid conditions being missed or ignored
- Having treatment generalised to the broad disorder, not catered to the subtype
- Lack of motivation
- Feelings of failure and hopelessness
- Financial issues
Serious mental illnesses are particular to each person and require ongoing treatment and strategies. As there is often no cure, ongoing management is required and clients may slip into relapse.
What are the Barriers to Ongoing Treatment for Schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a spectrum of intensity and length of time. It may last a few months to a whole lifetime. It usually starts with first episode psychosis. When psychotic symptoms continue, it may develop into schizophrenia. It is often difficult to intervene early because psychosis is often not recognised by medical professionals or family members.
Schizophrenia treatment barriers include:
- Client preference for alternative treatment
- Ignorance and lack of insight by medical professionals
- Travel to appointments
- Unsure of where to go or next steps
- Struggle to find a psychologist or therapist
- Affected judgement leading to lack of compliance
- Lowered cognitive and social ability leading to lack of follow through
- Different medical clinicians not seeing history or progress
- Limited time and inconsistent attendance
Due to this, 40% of Australians with schizophrenia are treated by their general practitioners – which means limited treatment and lack of specialist care.
Clarity’s Multidisciplinary Approach
Effective schizophrenia treatment in Melbourne is making its way. Clarity Health has specifically developed a multidisciplinary approach to schizophrenia treatment. All necessary and specialist services are in one place. Psychologists, psychiatrists, occupational therapists, and other allied health staff all work from the same treatment plan in the same clinic. They are already seeing a 90% reduction in psychiatric hospital readmissions among their clients.
This approach is all about removing the barriers to recovery and making treatment more accessible. This system ensures that the client has an individual treatment plan according to their disorder subtype, delivered by health professionals who are all on the same page. Clarity’s program also offers innovative approaches to community care, from group therapy sessions to mental health management apps, with ready access to psychiatrists Melbourne patients can rely on for help.
