The Mental Health Service Older Persons (MHSOP) is located at Te Whare Ra Uta on the Kenepuru Community Hospital campus.
It is predominantly a community based service, with a 16 bed specialist inpatient unit. We work as a multi-disciplinary team including nursing, medical, occupational therapy, psychology, social work and support staff.
The MHSOP provides assessment, treatment and rehabilitation to:
- Older people with recent onset psychiatric illness
- People with complex behavioural and psychological difficulties associated with dementia where a short-stay in an acute hospital environment is required for assessment of ongoing needs.
It is important that the person’s physical health has been considered and that delirium or other medical illnesses have been managed or excluded.
There are some people referred with complex physical and mental health needs where co management across more than one specialty service may be needed. The MHSOP works in close collaboration with other service providers to identify the best ways of achieving this.