Mental Health Addiction Crisis Support (MHACS)

The Mental Health Addiction Crisis Support (MHACS) project aimed to improve the experience for people coming to Emergency Departments and other acute care locations. A Ministry of Health funded national initiative, the MHACS project was underpinned by the ‘Let's get real’ framework, delivered by workforce development centre Te Pou. It also sat under the Mental Health and Addiction Change Programme. 

Before the four-year project wrapped up it focused on enhancing the acute care pathway in four ways: 

1: Increasing the capability and confidence of ED staff to work more effectively with tāngata whaiora presenting in acute distress with mental health and addiction challenges. 

2: Recruitment of 1.2 FTE Mental Health Acute Care Support Specialty Education Nurses across CCHV, to work alongside ED staff to support the development of mental health and addiction skills and knowledge, identify process improvements, and contribute to improving stakeholder relationships (more information is below). 

3: Supporting the development of resources for all tāngata whaiora and whānau, with information about options available to support them, such as internal services and external agencies, as well as self-help material. 

4: A group of stakeholders met regularly to identify need and develop initiatives collaboratively. The group formed to ensure the voices of those with lived experience, disabilities, whānau, Māori, and Pacific were heard.  

Mental Health Acute Care Support Specialty Education Nurses 

These crucial roles were initially taken up by De’arna Sculley in Hutt Valley and Gavin Donnell in Wellington, both of whom carried out education to support, build confidence and upskill their ED colleagues, and strengthen links with broader mental health services. 

In reflecting on her time in this role, De’arna felt motivated by raising awareness among ED kaimahi of different services to which tāngata whaiora could be referred, and then seeing clinicians starting to refer to these teams of their own accord. 

Gavin was praised by his ED colleagues for his positive impact on the care of tāngata whaiora, saying he “helped the staff increase their skills and knowledge.” Get an inside perspective on what being an MHACS Nurse Educator entails here.  

Next steps 

With the project formally ended, an ongoing need for MHAIDS and ED to work together on improving support for tāngata whaiora presenting to ED has been identified, and so a collaborative ‘Enabler Group’ has been set up to continue to build this relationship.  

The intention of this group is to provide a forum for ongoing process improvements and information sharing between the services, to keep working towards improving the experiences of tāngata whaiora presenting in acute distress. Currently, communication pathways are being worked on to ensure information from key stakeholder partners is brought to the group.  

The group has equity partners included in both the governance and operational arm of the group. Suzie Baird, Director of Lived Experience and Engagement at MHAIDS, is the chair of this group. 

Ongoing funding has been secured for two permanent part time (0.6FTE) MHACS Nurse Educator roles. MHAIDS is currently recruiting for these roles in Hutt Valley and Wellington. If you are interested, please contact Waka Saba WakaitiRaewyn.Saba@mhaids.health.nz for more information.