Mental Health Nurses
What does a Mental Health Nurse do?
Mental health nurses work with people with high and low prevalence mental health disorders, including mental illnesses or psychological distress.
Services
Mental health nurses may:
- Identify patient goals and interventions required to achieve them
- Provide a comprehensive mental status assessment
- Contribute to the development of a General Practice Mental Health Care Plan
- Contribute to case conferences
- Assist patients’ families and carers to provide care and support
- Provide psychological education
- Provide counselling and psychological interventions
Patients may be referred to a mental health nurses for:
- Medication education, management and compliance monitoring
- Liaison point between GPs and psychiatrists
- Support and interventions post discharge from a mental health service
- Monitoring of mood, suicidality and self-harm tendencies
- Counselling to manage and contain psychological distress
- Home visiting
Medicare Eligibility
To be eligible to provide services under the CDM Medicare items, mental health nurses need to be registered nurses and credentialled by the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses. They need to be:
• A registered mental health nurse in Tasmania or the Australian Capital Territory
• A ‘credentialled mental health nurse’ as certified by the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses in other States or the Northern Territory. (Medicare Eligibility Criteria for Allied Health Professionals providing Medicare Services)