Mobile Intensive Rehabilitation Service

Mobile Intensive Rehabilitation Teams (MIRT) provide daily intensive specialist mental health interventions to adults living in the community with complex mental health issues. People seen by MIRT usually have a diagnosis of severe and persistent mental illness, and/or a comorbid secondary diagnosis of substance abuse and/or a severe personality disorder.

Generally, we see people who are at risk of frequent psychiatric crises and without the involvement of the MIRT service, would need to be frequently hospitalised in an acute unit or receive extended care within a non-acute inpatient service. Consumers usually have severe difficulties in one or more of the following:

• enduring mental illness (including first presentation of mental illness, where rehabilitation needs are present)
• reduced social integration due to the disabilities of mental illness
• difficulty remaining engaged with mental health services, thereby impairing their ability to maintain treatment particularly where related to cognitive difficulties
• prolonged or multiple hospitalisations
• unstable accommodation
• establishing and/or maintaining social support systems which facilitate community inclusion
• social functioning and maintaining a safe living situation
• significant deficits in independent living skills.

Our services

The Mobile Intensive Rehabilitation Service may provide:

• an extended hours outreach service, through home visits and other community based interventions, to help support independent living
• assessment, recovery planning and intensive mental health psychosocial rehabilitation
• services for consumers who have complex mental health needs
• preventative help for people to manage crisis situations and provide supports to keep crisis from turning into unnecessary hospitalisations
• education to the consumer, their family, carers and support services
• engage, develop and maintain partnerships with local services and community groups
• short-term, short-notice services to help with discharge home to the community
• long-term basis (more than 3 months) for rehabilitation.

Mobile Intensive Rehabilitation Services are provided to people who have complex needs but are currently getting less intensive mental health clinician continuing care (previously called case management), and would benefit from higher intensity involvement to assist in functional recovery.

How to access this service

Consumers are referred by their Principal Service Provider within adult mental health community and inpatient teams and by triage a clinician in the Acute Care Team.