A new way to access urgent mental health support
Located in the Adelaide CBD
A welcoming space for all
Designed in collaboration with the community, including people with a lived experience of a mental health crisis, the UMHCC offers a welcoming place to help everyone feel safe and accepted.
Run in partnership to support better outcomes
The Urgent Mental Health Care Centre is a Neami National service, delivered in partnership with RI International and supported by SA Health and the Australian Government.
Working together allows us to offer something new to benefit consumers and the community. We adapt the UMHCC to fit the needs of the local community. By collaborating, we can offer services with a ‘no wrong door’ approach to access and support.
Sharing knowledge and expertise with community and clinical services helps everyone to understand how to best support good mental health.
Designed in collaboration with the community
A collaborative co-design process helped to shape the UMHCC and lead to a service that met the needs of the people of Adelaide.
The co-design sessions included people with a lived experience of recovery, carers and family, mental health professionals, support services and first-responders.
The sessions drew from comprehensive community experience to understand:
- what is needed to provide a positive experience
- how to best integrate with existing services
- what makes the right service at the right time.
A safe and inclusive model of support
Drawing on more the 30 years’ experience in providing complex recovery-based support, the UMHCC provides a high-engagement, recovery-based experience for each person.
For the UMHCC, Neami are working with RI International (RII), a US-based not for profit organisation, as a thought-partner to provide access to the latest research, guidance, training and quality assurance for peer-led crisis recovery.
Alongside RI International’s leading international evidence and best practice, the UMHCC model of care brings together the principals of peer support with recovery-based clinical mental health within a comprehensive Clinical Governance framework.
Working collaboratively, the multi-disciplinary team support each person with their immediate mental and physical needs. Throughout the stay at the centre, guided by a Peer Support Worker, the team collaborate to enhance safety, ensure a comprehensive clinical and psychosocial assessment and to develop an initial care plan.
Care planning responds to the medical, personal and social factors that led to the mental health crisis and current presentation and feature:
- Assessment for diagnostic clarification and medication requirements
- Plans for managing psychosocial stressors including referrals to appropriate community support
- Communication with family and carers and any existing care teams or support
- Provision of self-help materials and referral to appropriate support groups
- Referrals to appropriate services for any escalated or follow-up care
Valuing lived experience
A “Peer-First, Peer-Last” culture elevates the value of lived experience and recovery coaching to support each person to adjust, settle and develop trust.
Peer Support Workers draw on their lived experience to support consumers in their recovery. At the UMHCC Peer Support Workers accompany each person through the intake and assessment process and assist throughout the time at the centre, all the way up to discharge.
Neami invests in the professional development and training of Peer Support Workers right across the country. Peer Work provides both an avenue for people to re-enter the workforce in a supportive work environment and an important profession in supporting others recovering from mental illness into employment.
Supporting South Australian’s mental health and wellbeing
The UMHCC builds on a long history of providing continuity of support across the clinical and community-based spectrum.
We know that building flexible services that accommodate changes in each person’s needs enables us to provide or connect with the right support at the right time.
We see this flexibility in our services possible by taking a person-centred approach from the first contact, be that a walk-in crisis service, to exiting something like long-term therapeutic support, is the best way to reach recovery.
Our focus on supporting local communities includes responding to people presenting in crisis or with urgent mental health needs. Across all our services, we have developed strong partnerships with community and clinical services.
Support
We’re here to help you though a crisis.