Donna was in a vulnerable period in her life at the time she was referred to Hunter Primary Care’s Clinical Care Coordination program. Having experienced a decline in her mental health, she was distrustful of services due to challenging experiences with other providers, which left her initially reluctant to engage with Hunter Primary Care.
As her Clinician, Madeline introduced various evidence-based strategies to support Donna to manage her mental health, including psychoeducation, behavioural activation, pleasant activity scheduling, nightmare re-scripting and mindfulness. Donna was very receptive and successfully applied strategies explored outside of appointments.
Through liaison with Donna’s GP, Madeline was able to support Donna to access referrals to various health services to allow investigation into identified health concerns. Madeline supported Donna to attend initial appointments with new health services to support her to practice strategies explored together to reduce her anxiety.
Working in collaboration with Donna’s treatment team and family support network, Madeline was able to:
- Support Donna to lodge an application for the Disability Support Pension with Centrelink.
- Provide Donna’s mother and identified carer, Lorraine, with education on Donna’s mental health, including ways to identify a decline in Donna’s mental health and strategies to safely manage.
- Provide education around carer support and aged care services available to Lorraine to enable her to remain supported in her role caring for Donna.
“I cannot thank you enough for all the support you have provided me” says Donna.
Fast forward to now, Donna’s improvement is evidenced by:
- Significant improvement in her mental health and mood, which has reduced her anxiety.
- Reengagement in the community, including connecting with friends.
- Improved functional capacity, allowing her to reengage in activities important to her, including training her horses using Liberty and Natural Horsemanship approaches.
“It has been such a privilege to walk alongside Donna in her journey to mental health recovery, seeing her growth from our initial meeting to the program completion” says Madeline. “It has been such a rewarding experience and I am so proud of Donna and the progress she has made during our time working together”.
📷 Pictured is Donna, with two of her beloved horses, Indi and Ming, at a local show.