For Patients and Visitors
What is the Service?
The Specialist Older Adults Consultation Service (SOACS) – Bundoora Centre and Broadmeadows Hospital (formerly the Aged Psychiatry Assessment and Treatment Team/APATT)
What can I expect from the service?
The Specialist Older Adults Consultation Service (SOACS) provides mental health assessments, develops collaborative recovery and treatment plans, refers on to other agencies as needed and provide follow up support and psychiatrist reviews as needed. SOACS provides the same services previously provided by APATT, ICT and BASICS.
We work with you and your family to assess the severity of their mental illness and recommend an appropriate form of treatment and/or support. How quickly and how often we see you will be based on your mental health needs.
We can see you at our offices and also in your own home, which includes residential care facilities.
Health professionals in the team include medical staff, mental health nurses, social workers, occupational therapists and psychologists.
We operate Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 5pm.
When a referral is accepted by the Specialist Older Adults Consultation Service, a key clinician will be allocated who will:
- contact you or your family/carers to make arrangements for an assessment of your mental health status
- with your consent, gather relevant information from your family/carers, and any other professionals who support you
- develop a Recovery and Wellness Plan in consultation with you, your family/carers, and your treating doctor
- provide you with follow-up support, referrals to other services and further reviews as needed, including reviews with the team psychiatrist/registrar.
What do I bring/need for my appointment?
Please bring with you/have available the following items:
– A list of all the medicines that you take.
– All the medical services that you currently use and the names of the people you call with their telephone number.
– The name and clinic address of your current General Practitioner.
How much does it cost?
There is no cost for the Specialist Older Adults Consultation Service
Our team
The SOACS team consists of Psychiatrists, Mental Health Nurses, Social Workers, Occupational Therapists and Psychologists.
Contact us
To enquire about your referral:
To make or enquire about a referral, contact the SOACS intake service on 1300676227 (1300 NSOACS).
For other enquiries:
Specialist Older Adults Consultation Service
Bundoora Centre
1231 Plenty Road
Bundoora VIC 3083
Telephone 1300676227 (1300 NSOACS)
Broadmeadows Hospital
35 Johnstone Street
Broadmeadows VIC 3047
Telephone 1300676227 (1300 NSOACS)
For Health Professionals
Service Overview
The Specialist Older Adults Consultation Service (SOACS) is an innovative specialist multidisciplinary community service providing a rapid response for older adult consumers with a mental health diagnosis and frailty, residing in the Northern health catchment community (including Residential facilities). This includes assessment, treatment and recommendations for management. The care provided may be episodic and consultative to support other services, including the adult mental health and well-being service.
The service (i) provides place-based care at the level and timeliness of service appropriate to the acuity of the consumer’s health condition (ii) prevents avoidable presentations to ED, (iii) reduces readmission to Inpatient units, (iv) supports the transition of consumers from community living to RACF (respite or permanent residence) and to/from Inpatient admission episodes
We work with the older adult and their family to assess the severity of their mental illness and recommend an appropriate form of treatment and/or support. Services are tailored to respond to the acuity of the consumer’s mental health condition. We see people at our offices or have the ability to also see people in their own homes when required.
SOACS remains distinctive from the broader mental health adult/older adult program. The clinical frailty scale (CFS) has been introduced as part of inclusion criteria. A CFS of 5 and above is required to be eligible for the service, ensuring expertise is provided to consumers who will most benefit from a specialist aged mental health service.
Age is not a criterion for the service, thus enabling a more tailored patient population to benefit from the speciality service- including younger frailer adults and including those with diagnosed Neurocognitive disorder with significant BPSD to have expert review and have recommendations made re treatment including future care. Aged persons who are more independent and higher functioning, without complex medical co morbidities will be managed in the adult/older adult service. SOACS may provide a secondary consultation for these consumers.
The service operates Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 5pm.
Inclusion criteria:
Eligibility for SOACS is determined by clinical need, not by age.
Inclusion to this service is subject to consideration of the following:
- Clinical frailty scale (CFS) = a score of 5 or higher
- Presentation of a mental illness in an aged consumer- this may be a first presentation or recurrence of a known mental illness requiring specialist treatment. Consideration will be given to individual situation resources, facilities and capacity of the SOACS program to meet the needs of the consumer, the CFS will be applied, consultant will be consulted to explore if there are other age-related considerations for inclusion.
- Consumers with a diagnosed neurodegenerative disease with or without significant behavioural and/or psychological symptoms.
- The consumer’s primary residence (home or residential care facility) is within the relevant Northern catchment area. (Cities of Hume, Moreland, Banyule, Darebin (Preston Area only), Nillumbik, Whittlesea)
Exclusion Criteria
- Clinical frailty score of less than 5 at time of referral without other SOACS related needs.
- Frail Consumers whose are needs are already meet under existing specialist services
- Aged persons who are more independent and higher functioning, without complex medical co morbidities will be managed in the adult/older adult service
- Consumers currently under the care of an Adult Mental Health Service (AHMS) who may be acutely unwell at the time of referral
- Consumers residing in the Northcote part of the City of Darebin
How to Refer:
To make a referral, contact the SOACS intake service on 1300676227 (1300 NSOACS).
Alternative service options:
Contact our Triage service on 1300676227 (1300 NSOACS).
Director/Head of Unit:
Lisa Carter
Director of Nursing and Operations, Aged Care Mental Health
Dr Julie Jambon
Director of Clinical Services, Aged & Older Adults Specialist Programs
Enquiries:
Specialist Older Adults Consultation Service (SOACS)
Bundoora Centre
1231 Plenty Road
Bundoora VIC 3083
Telephone 1300676227 (1300 NSOACS)
Broadmeadows Hospital
35 Johnstone Street
Broadmeadows VIC 3047
Telephone 1300676227 (1300 NSOACS)
- Locations offering this service
- Broadmeadows Hospital
- Bundoora Centre
