Mental health clinic in Hong Kong's Kowloon West looks to speed patient recovery with integrated care model
Integrated care model being trialled in Kowloon West seeks to reduce reliance on medication and gain results in months instead of years
Patients with mild mental health problems could see shorter waits and faster treatment in public hospitals if successful trials of an integrated care model by a clinic in Kowloon West can be more widely implemented.
The Common Mental Disorder Clinic at Kwai Chung Hospital was established in July to care for patients with less severe conditions who would normally wait to attend a specialist outpatient psychiatry clinic in the district.
Non-urgent patients attend the new clinic where they are first assessed by a psychiatric nurse and then diagnosed by a psychiatrist.
Depending on the patient's needs, this is then followed by four sessions of integrated care and counselling by a clinical psychologist, physiotherapist and other health care professionals.
While it can take one to two years for patients to recover in conventional treatment clinics - which rely more on medication - the new clinic uses intensive psychological care to achieve results in months.
The pilot scheme was set up to shorten the long queue for services at the Hospital Authority's specialist outpatient psychiatry service, for which patients deemed stable have to wait anywhere from 24 to 143 weeks to attend their first appointment, depending on the district.