UNASSIGNED: Managing mental health patients during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a global challenge. Current workforce arrangements tend to separate those skilled in caring for highly infectious medical patients from those whose specialism is in managing co-morbid mental health, substance misuse and/or behaviours of concern, including potential non-compliance with community or health care directives. This paper reports an innovative service development through the emergency establishment of a temporary COVID-positive mental health ward in response to a local outbreak in Melbourne.
UNASSIGNED: A case study of service reorientation is presented, examining barriers and enablers to effective care of co-morbid mental illness, addiction and COVID-19.
UNASSIGNED: Establishing a skilled multidisciplinary workforce across mental health and infectious disease is the most important consideration in optimising care. Other issues included suitable physical space, security arrangements and inter-disciplinary communication.
UNASSIGNED: The paper holds insights for managing mental health care during potential future infectious disease outbreaks across the country.

A wide variety of peer worker roles is being introduced into mental health services internationally. Empirical insight into whether conditions supporting role introduction are common across organisational contexts is lacking. A qualitative, comparative case study compared the introduction of peer workers employed in the statutory sector, voluntary sector and in organisational partnerships. We found good practice across contexts in structural issues including recruitment and training, but differences in expectations of the peer worker role in different organisational cultures. Issues of professionalism and practice boundaries were important everywhere but could be understood very differently, sometimes eroding the distinctiveness of the role.