Triage / Intake
OYH-CP manage all referrals through the Triage/Intake team. The role of Triage/Intake is to gather comprehensive information about the reason for the referral and to then talk with the referrer, and where possible the young person, about what help is available.
Some of the questions asked by Triage/Intake may include:
- Demographics (name, date of birth, address, next of kin)
- Does the young person, their family or guardian know about the referral? If not, why not? If they know about it how do they feel about it?
- Nature of the problem
- Emotional changes: eg. depressed; unusually happy mood for several days; sad; tearful; irritable/agitated; fearful; anxious
- Changes in thinking: eg. poor concentration and memory; not making sense in conversation/writing; hearing voices or noises; unusual beliefs that are out of context
- Behavioural changes: eg. withdrawn from family/friends; harming self eg, Cutting, burning oneself; preoccupied; poor self care; deterioration in performance at school or work
- Physical symptoms: eg. changes in eating; changes in sleeping
- Degree of risk to self or others: eg. thoughts; plan; intent
- Family history
- Drug use
- Offending behaviour
- Available supports
- Previous mental health treatment
- Why are you referring now?
When answering questions about the deterioration in a young person’s mental health it is useful to know that the Triage/Intake worker will ask you how long this has been happening, how often, how intense and how does it affect daily functioning?
Triage Contact Number: 1800 888 320.
Triage Paging Service: 03 9483 4556 (Ask for Orygen Youth Health Triage).
If you would like to speak to the Triage Coordinator about the decisions made by Triage, please let the staff member you are talking to know, or phone 03 9342 2800 and ask to speak to the Triage Coordinator.