The integrated clinical, research and education approaches that define the Mindgardens partnership require sophisticated support behind the scenes to ensure that all players understand their roles and to smooth any practical and cultural barriers to working together. Several major projects to develop this organisational infrastructure are part of the initial phase.

Research and Clinical Trials Governance Framework

Project lead: Mindgardens CEO

Early activities will include developing governance protocols for clinical trials across the partner organisations and establishing a clinical trials network with representatives from all parties.

Cross-partner Data Platform

A shared data system across apex clinics, hospitals and community clinics will allow patients to enter clinical trials from any point in the Mindgardens network and support the collection and integration of research and clinical data.

Project lead: Associate Professor Chris White (SESLHD)

Who is it for?

Information Technology systems within SESLHD and other patient delivery organisations eg Black Dog Institute do not integrate making it difficult for clinicians and researchers to obtain data for treatment and research. The Research Office Data Environment (RODE) project is a distributed data warehouse and analytics platform with cross organisational jurisdictional reach (UNSW, Black Dog, CESPHN, NeuRA).

What is it about?

The Research & Operational Data Environment (RODE) project aims to design, build and implement a comprehensive data management platform, the Research & Operational Data Environment (RODE), enabling information access for research and clinical decision support. The focus of the platform will be:

• The completeness of data from the medical record
• Project collaboration across the partner organisations
• Simplicity of data access and information delivery
• Reproducible automated analytic techniques

The proposed model allows for data sharing across all partners but no organisation maintaining complete control of the entirety of the data collections.

The platform is to be designed and refined over 2 years with all data being SESLHD clinical allowed but a focus on the completeness of Mental Health, Alcohol and Drug, and Stroke clinical data and related data collections.

Which organisations are involved?

• SESLHD
• NeuRA
• UNSW
• Central and Eastern Sydney Primary Health Network
• Black Dog Institute

Integrated Care Pathways

Project lead: Professor Nick Lintzeris (SESLHD)

This two-year pilot project will develop and test consistent clinical pathways for patients with mental health and substance use problems, regardless of how they enter the system (a ‘no wrong door’ approach). It will construct integrated patient journeys between general practice, specialist mental health and drug and alcohol services and physical health clinics, within the community, hospital and non-profit service sectors, as well as online and telephone services. This approach will be applied across the whole SESLHD catchment region – challenging the service fragmentation that can lead to poor outcomes for people.

What is it about?

Using a shared clinical information system (CIS), care teams in mental health and drug and alcohol services will develop and implement a Comorbidity Package which will enhance care coordination and collaboration through common training, dashboards, alerts and reminders. The project leaders will bring together clinicians, academics, consumers, service managers and data specialists to iteratively co-design the software, so the resulting package will deliver benefits for all users.

Which organisations are involved?

• SESLHD
• Central and Eastern Sydney Primary Health Network
• UNSW

Clinical Measurement and Outcome Framework

Project lead: Mindgardens CEO

In partnership with the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation and the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement, the Mindgardens partners will develop a framework for measuring and assessing their shared projects.

This project will be embedded within all Mindgardens projects.

Workforce

Project lead: Mindgardens CEO

A training program for psychologists and psychiatrists will expose this workforce to a wide spectrum of clinical and research programs across the Mindgardens partner organisations, increasing their skills in evidence-based interventions including cognitive behaviour therapy, motivational interviewing, schema therapy and Open Dialogue. One goal is to increase the number of professionals qualified to supervise others, enhancing the capacity of the network to transfer skills to new generations of specialists.

Investment in audiovisual recording facilities will allow supervisors to oversee trainees’ work with their clients and provide in-depth feedback. There is also potential to apply technology innovations such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence to the training programs.

This project will be embedded within all Mindgardens projects.