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Impact of the Mental Health Nurse Incentive Programme on patient functioning
Author(s) -
Meehan Tom,
Robertson Samantha
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
international journal of mental health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.911
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1447-0349
pISSN - 1445-8330
DOI - 10.1111/inm.12099
Subject(s) - incentive , mental health , psychology , nursing , medline , medicine , psychiatry , political science , economics , microeconomics , law
The Mental Health Nurse Incentive Programme ( MHNIP ) was established across A ustralia during 2007. The programme enables mental health nurses to work alongside general practitioners ( GP s) and other health professionals to assist in the assessment and treatment of people with mental illnesses. This paper reports on the outcomes for 309 patients referred by GP s to the programme in one region of Q ueensland. Standardized measures were completed pre‐ and post‐treatment to evaluate changes in symptoms and general functioning between baseline and follow up. Patient contact with the programme ranged from 3 weeks to 38 weeks, and the study group ( n = 84) demonstrated significant improvement on all of the self‐report and clinician‐rated measures employed. Effect sizes ranged from 0.59 to 0.74. The findings suggest that the MHNIP is making a positive contribution, with a medium‐to‐large impact on the mental health and general functioning of individuals supported through the programme. Further evaluation work is required to determine if the findings from this study can be generalized more broadly.