Linkage enablers
| Category | Enabler | Present | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government policy and programme support | X | Integration advocated but lack of implementation strategy; No detail regarding older people's mental health | |
| Organisational level: leadership | Authorise/encourage team work | ✓ | Authorisation around specific issues but limited meetings to enable teamwork; Concern re-permissions to attend meetings |
| Resources and strategies | ✓ | Limited resources and formal strategy; Dedicated staff in OPMHS clinician, PATF project officer, SAFKI rural coordinator; Service funding tied to occasions of direct care | |
| Recruitment and staff development | ✓✓ | As above recruitment into staff positions—MHFA training | |
| Worker level partnership formation activities | Joint development through active communication; Share information, plan and problem solve | ✓✓ | As the above (table 1) various meetings—works well informally in small subregion with long-term workers embedded in the community; Larger subregion needing more formalised processes |
| Worker attribute enabler | Commitment to collaboration; Skills in primary care and mental health; Primary care focused and flexible work style; Ability to fit into teams | ✓✓ | As above—committed workers discussed in service provider and consumer/carer interviews—expressed limits on participation in meetings |
| Evaluation and feedback | ✓ | Limited but with some via the PATF communicating with the members | |
| Proximate location | Interaction capacity | ✓✓ | Evidence of this working well in the small subregion and in some centres |
Criteria: Older people's mental health (OPMH) specific; regional as compared to localised; and formal and regular compared to ad hoc
No criteria evident (X) through to all three criteria evident (✓✓✓)
For full description of linkage enablers see Fuller et al.17
MHFA, Mental Health First Aid; PATF, Positive Ageing Taskforce; SAFKI, Southern Adelaide Fleurieu Kangaroo Island.