Mental Health Intellectual Disability Hub
Contact
Phone: (02) 7825 2005
Intake officer: SCHN-CHW-PsychmedIntake@health.nsw.gov.au
MHID Hub Manager: SCHN-MHIDhub@health.nsw.gov.au
About our service
The Sydney Children’s Hospital Network Mental Health and Intellectual Disability (MHID) Hub is a state-wide tertiary service to improve the mental health of children and adolescents with intellectual disability and/or autism under 18 years of age.
The Hub is a short term consultation service funded by the NSW Ministry of Health in response to mental health reform for people with intellectual disabilities.
The Hub has two main aims concerning children with intellectual disability and/or autism:
- To improve state-wide access to specialist mental health services for complex and atypical cases; and
- To enhance the capacity of local services to provide mental health care within mainstream and subspecialty services.
Referral process for clinicians
Our department is using Consultmedlaunch to manage referrals. The Consultmed platform allows health professionals to send e-referrals to us securely.
Consultmed questions and technical support: helpdesk@consultmed.co
Referral and appointment process for parents and carers
Request a referral
To make an appointment at our clinic, you will need a referral from your paediatrician, child psychiatrist or specialist.
Referrals may be accepted across NSW from:
- Paediatricians who require assistance after having made an initial referral to local CAMHS services and after providing support to the family to access disability services.
- Child psychiatrists requiring a second opinion. If both a paediatrician and a psychiatrist are involved in the care of a patient, the preference is for the psychiatrist to initiate the referral.
- CAMHS clinicians seeking advice.
Eligible patients are children and young people under 18 years of age who meet all of the following criteria:
- Have a diagnosed intellectual disability and/or autism spectrum disorder with co-occurring mental health issues and complex needs, and
- Have an existing primary treating clinician or team providing ongoing care, and
- Have been referred to local community mental health services and more specialised support is required from the Hub team, and
- Are already engaged with local disability services such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) funded positive behaviour support or other therapies.
Access is provided on the basis that the patient’s primary clinician retains case management and that all requests have been discussed with and accepted by the family. As the hub is an out-patient service only, patients with acute mental illness and those treated as in-patients need to be managed and treated by local services.
Track your referral
Our service uses Consultmed to manage referrals. Your referring clinician sends the e-referral to us using the secure Consultmed platform.
Once we receive the referral, we will send you an email with your tracking information. We will update you as we process the referral and book your appointment.
To receive these updates, please ask your referring clinician to include your email on the referral.
If your clinician has questions about Consultmed or require technical support, they can contact helpdesk@consultmed.co.
Triage and intake
- The referral letter is reviewed by the Intake Officer
- The referral is considered by the Hub team on a weekly basis
- Referrers will be notified of the outcome.
If accepted: a staff member will be in touch to arrange the consultation process.
If not accepted: referrers will be notified in writing, including feedback about the reasons for non-acceptance and will provide suggestions about alternative services.
Need support?
If you need help or have questions about the referral and appointment process, please contact us.
Phone: (02) 7825 2005
Intake officer: SCHN-CHW-PsychmedIntake@health.nsw.gov.au
Our services
Our scope
The nature and scope of the Hub is as follows:
- The Hub is a short-term consultation service, working with the complex patients and their care networks to support and provide advice to the patient’s local treating clinicians by sharing our expertise in assessment, diagnosis and treatment for co-occurring mental health issues in children and adolescents with intellectual disability and/or autism spectrum disorders.
- The Hub becomes involved when a medical professional or mental health team have made reasonable assessment or treatment attempts that have not been successful and when specialist expertise will add a significant contribution.
- The responsibility for treatment, case management and ongoing care will always remain with the patient’s referring clinician. The Hub will not assume primary responsibility for the patient’s ongoing care needs.
Levels of service
The SCHN MHID Hub can offer the following levels of service depending on the level of clinical complexity:
- Joint consultation with the referrer, patient and family members or carers to provide assessment, diagnosis and short-term treatment intervention of between one to three consultations. This can be provided via face to face at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead or via telehealth.
- Clinical consultation with the patient and family members or carers to provide assessment, diagnosis and short-term treatment advice to the referrer. This is limited to one to three consultations and can be provided face-to-face at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead or via telehealth.
- Case-based discussions to a referrer via telehealth. This may be a discussion between a Hub psychiatrist and the referring doctor or a Hub allied health clinician and the treating allied health clinician.
The Hub team
The Hub team is staffed part-time and includes the following multidisciplinary team members:
- Child Psychiatrist (2 days per week)
- Clinical Psychologist (2 days per week)
- Occupational Therapist (1 day per week)
- Social Worker (2 days per week)
- Service Coordinator/ Manager (2 days per week)
The Hub is hosted by the Developmental Psychiatry Team within the Department of Psychological Medicine at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead and draws on over 15 years of mental health and intellectual disability clinical experience and leadership.
Funding
The SCHN MHID Hub is a newly funded service under the NSW Ministry of Health.
Other specialist health services have also been funded to improve health outcomes for people with intellectual disability and include:
- The Statewide Intellectual Disability Mental Health Outreach Service (SIDMHOS) for adults
- The Intellectual Disability and Mental Health National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Residual Functions Program
- Specialist Intellectual Disability Health Teams (located in Sydney, Hunter New England, South Western Sydney, Northern Sydney, Western NSW, and South Eastern Sydney Local Health Districts). Each team will provide an outreach service to another local health district/s in collaboration with the Intellectual Disability Health Clinicians.
Clinician resources
NSW CAMHS Clinicians, Psychiatrists, Paediatricians, LHD staff and our SCHN colleagues are invited to view the past program recordings from the 2020 Kids Webinar series.
- Mental health and intellectual disability in NSW (opens in a new tab)
- How does the SCHN MHID Hub work? (opens in a new tab)
- What is different about assessing the mental health of a young person with an intellectual or developmental disability? (opens in a new tab)
- What else is needed to formulate and negotiate a diagnosis in children with intellectual disability? (opens in a new tab)
- Common comorbidities in people with intellectual disabilities (opens in a new tab)
- Collaboration and capacity building (opens in a new tab)
- Self-injurious behaviour and children and adolescents with intellectual disability (opens in a new tab)
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for Children with Autism (opens in a new tab)
- Q&A with presenters (opens in a new tab)
