Evaluation of Integrated Mental Health Hubs: Brisbane North PHN
Status: Completed March 2022
Client: Brisbane North PHN
Background
Primary Health Networks (PHN) receive several streams of funding from the Commonwealth Department of Health to commission mental health services to meet the needs of people with severe mental illness in the community.
Following a review of its commissioned services to better meet the needs of people with severe mental illness, Brisbane North PHN established three Integrated Mental Health Service Hubs (‘hubs’) in 2019. These Hubs use a pooled funding approach to deliver clinical and non-clinical services in one location and facilitate access to tailored packages of care for people with severe mental illness.
Three separate providers are contracted by Brisbane North PHN to deliver the hub model across three catchment areas across the Brisbane North and Moreton Bay North region. In 2021, Brisbane North PHN engaged Beacon Strategies to undertake an external evaluation of the hub model across Brisbane North to explore whether this integrated approach improves outcomes for consumers.
Approach
The evaluation approach considered the program from several perspectives or domains — appropriateness, effectiveness, implementation and sustainability. Aligned to a set of guiding evaluation questions, data was analysed sourced from program documentation, client/program data collected according to the Primary Mental Health Care Minimum Data Set (PMHC-MDS), and semi-structured interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders (e.g. Hub staff and management, Brisbane North PHN, peer PHNs). The findings were then considered in the context of the evidence base and strategic environment relating to severe and complex mental health services.
Outcomes
Beacon Strategies provided a final evaluation report to Brisbane North PHN and the three hub providers in late 2021 that captured the findings of the evaluation, identified implications for future commissioning and service delivery, and provided recommendations for program improvements for consideration into the future.
Brisbane North PHN publicly released the Mental Health Hubs report in September (2022), following a launch event hosted by Communify (one of the Mental Health Hub providers) in August 2022. Read more here.
The final evaluation report included recommendations for consideration by Brisbane North PHN to improve future service commissioning and delivery to meet the needs of people with severe and complex mental illness, which span the following areas:
communicating the outcomes of the evaluation through targeted reporting products
better understanding and responding to the factors driving levels of non-engagement and disengagement
building awareness and strengthening relationships with referring organisations
increasing referrals to the hubs from the primary care setting (GPs) to identify and connect people with support earlier in their journey
engaging with Metro North HHS to better integrate the hubs as part of a local service system
strengthening the impact of the program through additional program capacity and reach, supported program exit and involvement of natural supports
updating the monitoring and evaluation framework to reflect meaningful outcomes, develop data quality and collection protocols, and establish regular performance reporting mechanisms
undertaking forward planning to guide the future delivery of the hubs model
connecting with other PHNs to share with and learn from integrated approaches to commissioning services for people with severe mental illness
exploring opportunities for Brisbane North PHN to deliver on other strategic priorities (e.g. single multi-agency care planning; integrated assessment and referral) as part of the hubs model.
Reporting products
The evaluation of Brisbane North PHN’s Integrated Mental Health Hubs resulted in the development of three targeted reporting products.
The full Mental Health Hubs Evaluation Report. Download here.
The 10-page Summary of the Mental Health Hubs Evaluation. Download here.
The 2-page summary of the Mental Health Hubs Evaluation Report. Download here.
Head across to the Evaluation and Review section of our website to check out our portfolio of evaluation work in addition to many evaluation specific blogs.
