How do you ensure that a new support service is relevant for the community it is designed for, so it is embraced as a safe and worthwhile place to come for support?
When Mind was chosen to deliver the new Distress Support Service in Shepparton, Victoria, members of our Lived Experience division worked with our local partners Primary Care Connect to do just that.
Known nationally as Distress Brief Support, this new model is a free service that offers early support for people 18 years and over who are feeling isolated, overwhelmed, or lacking hope. It aims to help people address difficult circumstances in their lives and equip them with tools and skills to manage their challenges, without having to present to a mental health, general health or emergency service. Distress Support Service is jointly funded by the Australian and Victorian Governments.
“Our task was to look at how well this model applied in Shepparton,” said Carolynne White, Senior Manager, Lived Experience Design and Development at Mind Australia.
Shepparton was selected as part of the national pilot because of its high rates of distress in the community and its diverse demographics. It has the highest percentage of First Nations people in Victoria outside Melbourne, high levels of asylum seekers and refugees and is very culturally diverse. There also isn’t a lot of services to support the region’s adult LGBTIQA+ community.
“Some people don’t feel safe accessing mainstream mental health services for a range of reasons – fear of discrimination because of their cultural background or gender or sexuality for example. We really wanted to involve hardly-reached people in the design of the service so they’d feel safe accessing support,” Carolynne said.
“We want to ensure that people who use our services are involved in their planning, design and early establishment. Our partner Primary Care Connect’s community engagement worker Jacquie was well connected to a diverse groups and communities throughout Shepparton. She really helped us to connect with Shepparton’s First Nations, culturally and racially marginalised, and LGBTIQA+ communities, and to disability groups also.”
Mind and Primary Care Connect’s co-design team recruited a diverse group of people from the local community. It included people from LGBTIQA+, people with physical disability, neurodiversity, African, Arabic, First Nations communities and carers and single parents. All participants had their own experiences of distress.
The team undertook seven co-design workshops that guided the participants through a range of activities to help make decisions about how the service should operate.
“It was a very collaborative space where the facilitators did well to ensure that everyone’s voice was heard,” said Mind Lived Experience Project Coordinator Lisa Williams.
“Knowing that the service was completely delivered by people with lived experience, from the team leader to the peer workers was valued and providing service users with agency, choice and flexibility in how they engaged with the service was a common theme. Ensuring that people had follow up support where needed after accessing the Distress Support Service was also important.”
Carolynne White said the workshops directly impacted the design of the service.
“They had a range of ideas and suggestions that have informed the final form of the service including having a bicultural worker, which community engagement points to establish, and renaming the service to make it more meaningful to Shepparton,” she said.
This codesign process is an important way to build trust, help a new service connect with the communities it is designed to support and tailor the service to truly meet their needs.
“Designing services this way, the community has a sense of ownership over it and people feel the place is somewhere they can reach out to when they need support,” Carolynne said.
For more information about Distress Support Service in Shepparton, visit Primary Care Connect, email [email protected], or call (03) 4836 1100.