About the Model of Care for BPD Collaborative

BPD Collaborative (BPD Co) is the statewide specialist borderline personality disorder service. The service was established in response to the demonstrated need for enhanced, evidence-based borderline personality disorder (BPD) service development in South Australia, tailored to the needs of consumers, carers and clinicians.

BPD Co support the implementation of the statewide stepped model of care, via a hub and spoke arrangement of services. Stepped care is described in the National Health and Medical Research Council BPD guidelines as ‘beginning with the least intensive treatment that is likely to be effective, then monitoring response to increase or reduce the intensity of the intervention according to the person’s needs’.

The hub and spoke service model facilitates the operation of an integrated BPD service across South Australia, offering consistent, high-quality care close to where people live. The hub or central office is located in Unley, while the spokes refer to the public health BPD services located across South Australia’s local health networks (LHNs). In this model, hub clinicians become agents of BPD clinical and cultural change by promoting and facilitating evidence-based BPD service development in the LHNs, as well as offering consultation and complex care services via the LHNs for consumers with the most severe and complex BPD.

The BPD Co Model of Care (PDF 305KB) will be rolled out across SA over time and has been developed to meet differing levels of BPD clinical need in a timely fashion. It includes the Gold Card SA brief interventions delivered in community mental health services (formerly: Assessment and Brief Intervention Clinics), short term group therapy programs, and further development of pathways of care for people with severe and complex BPD.

This integrated system of care will also interface with a range of private practitioners and community-based services, including non-government organisations and Primary Health Network-funded services.

The state-wide BPD service will include enhancing clinical care focussing on people with severe and complex BPD, family and carer engagement, early years - parents’ program, a youth program, a criminal justice program and a program focussed on the needs of Aboriginal people.

In addition to these BPD clinical services, a dedicated training program supports training and capacity-building activities across the state, while research and evaluation processes are led by the research lead and facilitated by the hub research coordinator. This will ensure commitment to quality assurance processes and encourage innovation within an evidence-based framework.

Outcomes

Outcomes to be achieved over time include:

  • improved access to appropriate early intervention services;
  • improved access to appropriate evidence-based services;improved access to recovery-focussed services;
  • reduction in the level of suicide and deliberate self-harm by those who suffer from BPD;
  • decreased presentations to hospitals, including emergency departments, by BPD clients;
  • decreased experience of stigma and discrimination faced by those with a diagnosis of BPD.