Shannon Wilkie is on a mission to get the word out about mental health support services. The Alberta Heath Services employee has been on a regional tour, methodically reaching out to Innisfail doctors, nurses and community members to explain the ins and outs of Community Treatment Orders, a new tool the province hopes will improve care for patients while reducing the burden on the health-care system.
“I went to every pharmacy in Innisfail, Olds and Sundre,” she said, noting many of the people she talked to had never even heard of Community Treatment Orders before. “I truly felt it was a warm welcome.”
Community Treatment Orders allow some with schizophrenia, bipolar and schizoaffective disorders to move out of institutional settings and back into the community, with strict conditions placed on patients to direct treatment programs.
“Those are the individuals that need to feel part of the community,” she said. “I'm really hoping with the awareness people will feel they have more support and more tools to use.”
Wilkie even attended the 2012 Fall Registration Night at the Innisfail Arena.
Community Treatment Orders emerged from recent changes to the Mental Health Act and allows someone with a significant mental illness to be discharged from hospital. Two physicians, with at least one being a psychiatrist, must initiate these orders.
This is a key to allowing some rural Albertans within the mental health system to return home and provides a useful way of advancing recovery for some, according to a provincial health official who helped write an official guide on Community Treatment Orders.
“It looks like it's very helpful to these people,” said Community Treatment Orders Team Lead Dr. Doug Watson, noting the province is seeking to halt the revolving door effect seen too often within the health system.
While many who have mental illnesses migrate to the city, keeping residents surrounded by the support networks they are comfortable with can have a huge effect on people, he noted.
“The family sees improvements in the way the patient seems to be feeling,” he says. “They see improvements in the way the patient is able to function.”
A Community Treatment Order provides a legal framework to compel a patient to get help if their situation deteriorates considerably. If a patient is not complying with their treatment schedule they can be picked up and brought back in to the psychiatric unit if necessary.
“The families know that if things go sideways, if things deteriorate, then they have a mechanism for getting these people back into care,” he said. “In the past they had to wait and wait and watch their family member get very sick again.”
Watson says Community Treatment Orders have been useful for rural Albertans so far.
“You'd be surprised, if you look at a map of Alberta, there are people who are living on Community Treatment Orders in many small communities,” he said. “They're either travelling to a bigger centre for parts of their treatment, or they're visiting psychiatrists and visiting mental health teams even in smaller communities who are quite capable of supervising the community treatment order.”
In Innisfail, mental health workers can work with clients, families or a community agency, to determine the needs of the client and together co-ordinate the appropriate level of care for clients under a Community Treatment Order.
Although there are no psychiatrists located in Innisfail, clients do not have to travel for an appointment, with appointments via Telehealth. Heading to Red Deer or Olds is also an option.
