Specialist Older Adults Community Service (SOACS)

The Specialist Older Adults Community Service (SOACS) provides mental health assessments, develops collaborative recovery and treatment plans, referrals to other agencies as needed and provides follow up support and psychiatrist reviews as needed.

We work with consumers and their 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 people will be based on your mental health needs. Consumers may be seen at the centre or in their own homes, including residential care facilities.

What to expect from the service?

Health professionals in the SOACS 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 Community Service, a key clinician will be allocated who will:

contact the consumer and/or family/carers to schedule an appointment for an assessment

with consent, gather relevant information from family/carers, and any other professionals who support the consumer

develop a Recovery and Wellness Plan in consultation with the consumer, their family/carers, and treating doctor

provide follow-up support, referrals to other services and further reviews as needed, including reviews with the team psychiatrist/registrar.

Location

Bundoora Centre

Broadmeadows Hospital

Contact us

Telephone 1300676227 (1300 NSOACS)

The Specialist Older Adults Community 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 (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.

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.

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).