People are significantly improving their mental health as a result of stays at Mind’s short term residential support services across Australia.
This is the feedback nearly 5000 people have provided after accessing support from 15 of these services across Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia between 2020 and 2025.
Called Prevention and Recovery Care services (PARCs) in Victoria and Step Up, Step Down services (SUSDs) in Queensland and Western Australia, the services are designed to support people to transition back into the community after a hospital stay – and to provide an alternative to a hospital stay for someone experiencing distress.
PARCs and SUSDs provide residential stays of up to 28 days, with peer support and 24 hour access to specialist mental health staff. During their stay, participants have a schedule of group activities alongside tailored individual one-to-one support based on each participant’s strengths and goals.
Mind’s Research team recently released an analysis of five years of outcomes and feedback from participants across the 15 services. It shows that, from entry to exit, participants are consistently reporting:
- a significant reduction in psychological distress
- a significant improvement in their recovery
- and a highly positive experience of the service at exit.
Mind Research Manager Dr Laura Hayes said the magnitude of these changes was significantly well above those typically reported in mental health programs.*
The average rating of their mental health and wellbeing reported by the nearly 5,000 participants improved from 48.4 per cent at entry to the service to 61.9 per cent at exit. Participants rated their mental health and wellbeing across a number of indicators including:
- their daily ability to cope
- their level of mental health knowledge
- ability to manage daily tasks
- feeling comfortable around other people
- family relationships
- their hopes and dreams.
Participants also expressed high satisfaction with their experience at the service including feeling respected, having their privacy respected, feeling safe and listened to, and diversity and inclusion.
Mind’s outcome research is undertaken using a number of internationally recognised outcome measures including the Kessler 6 (K6), the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS)and the Living in the Community Questionnaire (LCQ).
Mind Research Manager Laura Hayes will be discussing this research and how Mind uses it to identify ways to improve its support at the One Door Mental Health Symposium in Sydney on 20 May.
Find out more about Mind PARCs and SUSDs.
*Reduction in psychological distress: effect size d ≈ −0.86
Improvement in recovery: effect size d ≈ 0.76
Positive experience of the service: 75-94%