NSW Health WSLHD Safety & Quality Account 2020-21

COVID-19

COVID-19 Mental Health Support for people quarantined in hotels The Australian Government commenced a Quarantine Program for all people returning to Australia to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 within the community. Those arriving at Sydney international airport were assigned hotels and managed by NSW Police for their quarantine period. WSLHD provided mental health support, through identification and treatment for those individuals experiencing significant distress and/or exacerbation or onset of mental illness. This included access to specialist mental health services such as Child and Youth, Older People and Clinical Psychology. A 24/7 dedicated health and wellbeing number was available for all hotel quarantine residents. The service provided a welfare check on all clients as well as three levels of support depending on level of acuity: • triage and support followed • specialised support • face to face visit to the hotel for a mental health assessment and further support An escalation and referral process was devised for NSW Health in the event of emergency response being required. Over the last two years – 03/04/2020 - 25/10/2021 – there were 240 referrals to the service with 83 visits to the hotel during these hours and 56 Consultations by a Psychiatrist. Health Care Interpreters Service (HCIS) With over 50% of residents speaking a language other than English at home, access to healthcare interpreters is essential in delivering services to the western Sydney community. As COVID-19 specific services became established, such as hotel quarantine, COVID-19 testing, COVID-19 vaccination and inTouch, demand for healthcare interpreter services increased significantly. Historically, 85% of healthcare interpreting is undertaken face to face. This was not possible during COVID, and a move to virtual interpreter models was made. This enabled new ways of working and increased capacity to deliver interpreter services, including • Utilising Microsoft Teams to establish priority interpreter service bookings • Bulk bookings for contacting COVID-19 positive patients at home • Video interpreting to support virtual outpatient appointments, and urgent oral health and emergency care

Since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in March 2020:

Over 180,000 hours of healthcare interpreting delivered between Jun 2020- July 2022

91% of all healthcare interpreting now delivered virtually, with 12% via video link

Hotel Quarantine – 134,485 occasions of phone interpreting service provided in 88 languages

Vaccination Hubs and inTouch – 18,478 occasions of service in 68 languages since May 2021

Improved access to an interpreter for COVID-19 related services, such as InTouch and Vaccination, with an interpreter made available withing 2-5 minutes of receiving the request.

Feedback from consumers and clinicians has been overwhelmingly positive and has provided a safe alternative to face to face interpreting in most cases. HCIS intends to further expand video interpreting as a safe, cost effective and high-quality mode of interpreting. COVID-19 Communications Access to current, accurate and reliable information became crucial during the Delta and Omicron COVID-19 waves. The WSLHD Corporate Communications team became a reliable and trusted source of timely COVID-19 information for staff and the community alike- be it on social media, the radio, The Pulse newsletter or the daily COVID-19 broadcasts from the Chief Executive. Every day, or sometimes multiple times a day, the WSLHD Corporate Communications team promoted: • the latest testing locations and hours • close contact locations • COVID-19 vaccination clinic locations and hours, as well as working closely with multicultural health and population health to make information accessible in real time, to the community.

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