Victorian Department of Health
The challenge at hand
In November 2019, the Mental Health Royal Commission delivered its interim report. The recommendations contained a focus on preparing the way for a new approach to mental health and responding to some of the most immediate challenges.
Recommendation 5 of this report laid out the foundations for the establishment of Victoria’s first residential mental health service design and delivered by people with lived experience of mental illness and recovery (the Lived Experience Residential Service).
How we helped
Impact Co. (in partnership with Jo Farmer Consulting) was engaged by the Mental Health and Wellbeing Division of the Victorian Department of Health to evaluate its approach to the co-design of the Lived Experience Residential Service. This project provided a blueprint for the Department to further develop their skills in co-design and refine their process for future work.
Impact Co. utilised a co-evaluation approach, engaging extensively with the co-design participants (co-designers) and actively involving people with lived experience of mental ill-health.
The impact
The evaluation provided in-depth insights on how the co-design process for the Lived Experience Residential Service was undertaken, including aspects of the process that went well and aspects that needed to be improved. This provided the basis for how the parameters of Stage Two of the co-design process was determined and the commissioning process that followed.
As a Lived Experience Evaluator was involved as part of the Project Team, it provided significant capacity building opportunities for this person to build their skills in research and evaluation.
The project also provided rich information on how to undertake co-design with people with a lived experience of mental ill-health in an effective and safe manner. The project helped to build the Department’s knowledge and capacity in co-design. It was used to inform other co-design projects of the Department and was shared with more than 50 staff members in a knowledge sharing session.
Impact Co. has also recently been re-engaged to undertake the evaluation of Stage Two of the co-design process.
Impact Co. acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which our offices stand, and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge their continuing relationship to this land, its waterways and seas and the ongoing living cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Australia. This land always was and always will be the land of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
