PORTS, the Practitioner Online Referral and Treatment Service, has successfully served disadvantaged Western Australians  aged 16 years and over since it launched in mid-2017. PORTS is a sister clinic to MindSpot, but has been funded by the Western Australian Primary Health Alliance (WAPHA) to provide targeted, specialist primary mental health care. With fantastic support from many mental health organisations across WA, PORTS served more than 12,000 Australians over its last five years.  

In 2021 the decision was made to integrate PORTS and MindSpot with the aimof reducing service duplication, reduce competition between the two services, and to build on the best aspects of each service. To maintain the commitment to primary care, PORTS has been expanded and enhanced to become the primary care arm of MindSpot, now called MindSpot GP. This change has increased the service and treatment options available to GPs and users in WA, while also improving overall governance of MindSpot services.  

The scale and complexity of integrating two clinics has been profound, says MindSpot and PORTS Executive Director, Professor Titov.

“Changes were required at all levels of our services including user journeys, software, data and analytics, staff training, governance and culture. However, this was a change we needed to make and we all believe this digital transformation will generate enormous benefits for our consumers and funders.” 

MindSpot GP has now been ‘soft launched’ and is already successfully managing GP referrals (and referrals from other health professionals) Australia wide, providing free psychological assessment and treatment services. We acknowledge the support of both the Australian Department of Health, and WAPHA and we look forward to formally launching MindSpot GP later in 2022