Services

Social Outreach provides essential services to support the health and wellbeing of vulnerable and disadvantaged communities in Australia and Timor-Leste. Our programs are designed to enable people to enjoy life more fully. Social Outreach services are available to the community free or at minimal cost and are underpinned by the principles of early intervention, prevention and capacity building.

Early years

• Delivered 15,779 individual counselling sessions to provide perinatal mental health care to 1,900 new parents.
• Ran more than 89 therapeutic group sessions across Australia to support more than 124 families.
• Grew Raphael Services nationally from seven to 10 locations. Opened Raphael Services Hub at Wembley, and satellites at Cockburn and Hawkesbury, and expanded existing services at Midland.
• Secured four Primary Health Network grants in Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria totalling $928,000.
• Commenced Moort Boodjari Mia Program, a maternity service for Aboriginal women and their families, and provided care for 87 pregnant women in the Midland area.
• Trained 11 Aboriginal health workers to facilitate Aboriginal Attachment training.

Youth and Accommodation Services

• Provided long-term accommodation, care and support to 166 vulnerable young people aged 16 to 25 through Horizon House.
• Horizon House supported 72 vulnerable young people to access tertiary education and 68 to access employment.
• Opened the first tier one Horizon House in Ballarat in June 2017, providing accommodation and support for four young people.
• Secured $140,000 in community donations toward Horizon House education materials, lifestyle resources and furniture.
• Supported 24 young people experiencing social isolation to engage with education and community services through the Youth Support Outreach Program.
• Casa Venegas provided safe and stable accommodation to 46 individuals with mental health issues.

Community Mental Health Services

• Provided mental health and wellbeing support to 1,612 clients, including 16,289 counselling sessions.
• Supported creation of LETS TALK, a mental health stigma reduction initiative that reached more than 4,000 members of the Warrnambool community.
• Pomegranate House Community Psychology Services introduced pilot Dialectical Behaviour Therapy program.

International health

• Continued the Nursing Development Program to address leadership and management skills, and expand nursing core competencies at the Hospital Nacional Guido Valadares in Timor-Leste.
• Implemented a strategy to support the hospital to achieve accreditation by 2021.
• Completed pilot Health Managers Program to empower leaders at the hospital and initiated roll-out of 2017 program.
• Created an Executive Development Program for the hospital’s Director Nursing and Midwifery.
• Initiated a Mission Formation Group to support St John of God Health Care caregivers and Timorese hospital staff to live the Vision, Mission and Values of their respective organisations.
• Collaborated with Australian Catholic University and the University Nacional Timor-Leste to improve the Timorese nursing course syllabus.

People

• Helen McAllister appointed National Director, Raphael Services in June 2017.
• Brenda Lowe appointed Director Finance, Community Services in June 2017.

Innovation

• Established Health Managers Program to address leadership and management capability among nurse and other leaders at the Hospital Nacional Guido Valadares in Timor-Leste.
• Developed the Independent Living Skills Program as a custom-designed tool to assist Horizon House caregivers in supporting young people.

Year ahead

• Refine model of care and service delivery for Community Mental Health Services.
• Prepare to open a specialist Horizon House Young Mother and Baby Program in Victoria.
• Establish Horizon House Youth Participation Panel and implement Youth Advisory Group.
• Open new Raphael Services satellites in Springwood, NSW and Perth, WA.
• Perform first hospital-wide clinical and non-clinical survey at the Hospital Nacional Guido Valadares in Timor-Leste, in preparation for accreditation in 2021.
• Implement Patient Focused Care Model at the Hospital Nacional Guido Valadares.