IAR-DST

The Initial Assessment and Referral (IAR) Decision Support Tool (DST) provides primary healthcare with a nationally-consistent, evidence-informed, objective approach to initial assessment and referral of patients seeking mental health support.

The DST has been developed to address common challenges amongst referrers in determining the most appropriate level of mental health care and services required for patients. The tool collects ratings across 8 primary and contextual domains to determine the level of care required by an individual at that point in time.

The IAR-DST is an initiative of the Australian Department of Health and brings together information from a variety of sources including Australian and international evidence and advice from a range of leading experts.

The IAR-DST aims to:

• simplify how clinicians determine the care needs of a patient with mental health concerns
• prevent patients being overburdened with services they may not need or can cope with, or under-serviced with recommendations that may not meet their needs improve transparency on decisions made relating to referrals
• create consistency and a common language amongst health professionals, enabling them to articulate treatment needs that will be understood across the sector.

The IAR-DST:

• is a decision support tool designed to be used alongside a comprehensive mental health assessment, to guide referral and promote shared decision making and consumer choice
• collects data across four primary domains and four contextual domains (8 domains total), against which the referrer will provide a rating
• will recommend one of five levels of care after all domains have been rated.

Further detail on the eight domains and five levels of care can be found in the IAR documentation under “IAR Resources”.

The IAR-DST is NOT:

• an assessment tool
• diagnostic
• prognostic
• a replacement for clinical judgement

A comprehensive training package on how to use the IAR-DST is available to all GPs, GP registrars, practice nurses, mental health nurses, allied health professionals and anyone else working in the mental health space in the CESPHN region.

IAR-DST training is delivered in a single, online 2 hour session.

• Workshops are delivered on a variety of days and times via zoom (see below for upcoming sessions).
• Prior to the training you will be asked to read through a few case studies that may be used for the practical example in the workshop. These scenarios can be found  below under “IAR Resources”.
• You will also be asked to complete 2 evaluations; one at the conclusion of the training and one follow up survey that will be emailed to you 3 months following the training.

If you are interested in Face-to-Face training please contact the IAR-DST team.

Certificates of attendance provided to all attendees to claim relevant CPD hours.

Training sessions are Online – 1 part (2 hours) unless otherwise specified.

Upcoming workshop dates are below, click the date of your choice to be taken to the registration page.

July

Friday 4th July 10.00am – 12.00pm AEST (morning)

Thursday 10th July 7.00pm – 9.00pm AEST (evening)

Wednesday 16th July 12.00pm – 2.00pm AEST (lunch)

Wednesday 30th July 2025 10.00am – 12.00pm AEST (morning)

If there is not currently a date or time that suits you, please contact the IAR-DST team.

• Department of Health IAR Decision Support Tool
• IAR National Guidance v2.0
• IAR Summary Levels of Care v2.0
• IAR Quick Reference Guide
• IAR Adult Domains
• IAR Adult Training Scenario – William
• IAR Adult Training Scenario – Jessica
• IAR Older Adult Domains
• IAR Older Adult Training Scenario – Di
• IAR Older Adult Training Scenario – Ray
• IAR Adolescent Domains
• IAR Adolescent Training Scenario – Brandon
• IAR Adolescent Training Scenario – Reed
• IAR Adolescent Training Scenario – Marla
• IAR Child Domains
• IAR Child Training Scenario – Crystal
• IAR Child Training Scenario – Noah
• IAR Training Zoom Instructions