CCI Project a Finalist for the WA Health Excellence Awards

CCI Project a Finalist for the WA Health Excellence Awards

CCI were proud to be represented at the recent WA Health Excellence Awards gala dinner by two of our team members, Adelln Sng (Senior Clinical Psychologist) and Amber MacLeod (Clinical Psychologist Registrar). The team were being recognised as one of four finalists in the category for Excellence in Mental Health for our project entitled Reducing Panic in the Emergency Department. The WA Health Excellence Awards recognise excellence, innovated, and people centred care in the delivery of health services, with the Mental Health category celebrating projects that promote positive mental health and support people who are experiencing mental health issues to stay in the community, out of hospital, and live a satisfying, hopeful, and contributing life.

 

CCI’s project aimed to enhance the way in which mental illness is responded to within the WA health system through the creation of an innovative new treatment program. This program offers evidence-based psychological treatment to individuals with panic disorder within a community clinic, thereby reducing their need to repeatedly seek treatment in medical settings. Panic disorder is a common mental illness, and people often mistake panic symptoms for medical emergencies and inappropriately seek medical care. This tends to result in symptoms being untreated and burdens healthcare emergency settings with repeated inappropriate presentations. Our community clinic developed an evidence-based, brief psychological group treatment for panic disorder and advertised this program to relevant healthcare providers. We initially received small numbers of referrals to the pilot program, though after advertising for longer periods have since received many more referrals. This new demand for our treatment program further suggests that people suffering from panic disorder have previously gone undetected and untreated when presenting to medical settings and are now able to receive the treatment they need as our new referral pathway becomes increasingly established and known. All referred patients who were suitable for the panic disorder group completed treatment and achieved excellent outcomes, as demonstrated by improvements in their scores on measures of panic, depression and general anxiety symptoms, and the positive qualitative feedback they provided about the program. Our project was successful in creating an out-of-hospital treatment solution for panic disorder and improving patient flow, and we will continue to grow this program.

 

You can find out more about CCI’s Panic Disorder Course on our website or take a look at our guided self-help modules (When Panic Attacks) designed to support consumers with panic disorder and professionals who are delivering treatment to this cohort.

 

Pictured below: Adelln Sng (Senior Clinical Psychologist) and Amber MacLeod (Clinical Psychologist Registrar), representing CCI at the WA Health Excellence Awards.

 

 

Last Updated: 11/12/2023