Lucia Ferguson is the first nurse practitioner in WA to work in community mental health
The State’s first wellness clinic, aimed at helping to improve the physical wellbeing of people with ongoing mental health issues, has opened at Fremantle Hospital.
Run by the Fremantle Hospital Mental Health Service (FHMHS) the new clinic aims to re-engage people with mental health issues with medical care.
The clinic is staffed by Lucia Ferguson, the first permanent nurse practitioner to work in a community mental health setting in WA, as well as a general practitioner (GP) and clinical nurse specialist.
And as if running the clinic is not enough of a challenge Lucia has been awarded a $6,000 fellowship from the WA Nursing and Midwifery Office.
Her project will evaluate the role of nurse practitioner at the clinic to examine the coordination between her position and other specialities, while highlighting the range of problems identified by nurse practitioner assessments.
The clinic itself runs alongside the existing care programs provided at the Alma Street Centre, offering more opportunities to improve a patient’s physical health.
Ms Ferguson said the clinic’s provision of holistic health care aimed to improve the physical health of patients.
“Often a person’s mental health issues become a barrier to improving other aspects of their health and many feel they can not engage with a GP,” she said.
“We hope this model of health care will help improve people’s physical health and ultimately, enable them to re-engage with a GP in the community rather than having to rely on this clinic in the long term.
“We have a captive audience at the clinic, the patients are already at the Alma Street Centre so we have a great opportunity to speak to them about their health – both mental and physical,” Ms Ferguson said.
“It is about empowering people and supporting lifestyle change.”