Inner City Health Program, St. Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst

The ICHP provides health services for vulnerable groups of people living in the inner city Sydney. It is comprised of Alcohol and Drug, Mental Health, Homeless Health and Primary Healthcare Liaison Services aimed at improving the overall health and well-being of its target populations and ultimately the general population of people living in the inner city.
It provides specialist services for defined disorders in particular those related to mental illness, addictions and those physical health conditions associatedwith adverse lifestyles and living circumstances.
The urban health service model employed by the ICHP pays attention to the social and economic determinants of health stressing the importance of income, housing and social connectedness on health and well-being. The Program also provides specialist mental health and addiction services for those with addictions, significant psychological distress, disability and life threatening disorders.
With regard to the latter it allows for direct entry into specialist services where these are indicated however provision is also made for homelessness and multi-speciality triage and assessment in the case of complex co-existing disorders.
To achieve these ends the Program is guided by a consumer focussed, strengths based philosophy of integrated care and offers a range of health promotion, early intervention, emergency and continuing care services in community, out-patient and inpatient settings.
The ICHP supports consumer and carer participation in the development and delivery of services. Recognising the increasing importance of community NGO services and the Primary Healthcare agencies it seeks where-ever possible to deliver services to the population in collaboration with other providers.