Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network
The challenge at hand
Navigation across the mental health, suicide prevention and alcohol and other drugs sector is challenging, particularly for people with mental ill-health, family members, carers and other members of the community.
EMPHN saw the opportunity to leverage technology to support people living and working in their catchment (East and North East Melbourne) to more effectively find the most appropriate mental health, suicide prevention and AOD services for themselves and their communities.
How we helped
Impact Co. (in partnership with Yump and Truth Agency) was engaged to build an online navigation platform that would support a person’s navigation journey through those sectors.
"I found that [Impact Co.] understood us, the sectors that we work in and the people/organisations that we work with. This meant they hit the ground running in terms of the delivery of the project."
Our approach to the challenge was based heavily in co-design and Design Thinking principles. It involved working extensively with people with mental ill-health, family members, service providers and EMPHN to understand their needs and to develop initial design prototypes for the online navigation platform that were iterated and refined throughout the project.
"This great collaboration ultimately led to a platform that has helped our team and a lot of people in the community navigate the mental health, suicide prevention and AOD services more effectively.”
The impact
In its first 12 weeks online, the platform helped 4,500 users to access mental health, suicide prevention and alcohol & other drugs information and support. In addition to making these services easier to navigate, the platform - Support Connect - also serves as a navigation directory for EMPHN’s Intake, Assessment and Referral (IAR) Team.
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.
