We are pleased to share our tenth bulletin update on the progress of the Crisis & Emergency Response Reform Project.

First Nations Engagement Overview

As part of our Phase 2 (System Design) and Phase 3 (Service Design) engagement series, we were privileged to meet with 43 representatives from Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs). These individuals brought a range of experience, including frontline and community-based service delivery, clinical expertise, and organisational and policy leadership.

As with all our consultations, our intent was to listen deeply and respectfully to the voices in the room. We sought to understand how both First Nations providers and communities have experienced – and continue to experience – the mental health crisis service system in Victoria.

These First Nations-specific sessions surfaced vital insights across a range of issues including access, resourcing, cultural safety, and Social and Emotional Wellbeing. We are pleased to attach the First Nations Engagement Overview to this bulletin, which provides further detail on what we heard, framed within the current policy and legislative landscape. The release of this summary coincides meaningfully with the tabling of the Yoorrook Justice Commission’s final report in the Victorian Parliament on 1 July 2025. We acknowledge the strong alignment between the themes raised in our consultations and those reflected in Yoorrook’s findings—further reinforcing the timeliness and significance of these conversations.

We invite you to review the First Nations Engagement Overview and share your reflections via this survey link before Friday 29th August, based on the following questions:

• Do the insights presented in the paper align with your own experiences and perspectives?
• Are there additional considerations you would like to contribute regarding a First Nations-specific design process?
• If you participated in one of the First Nations consultations, we welcome your reflections on the experience, particularly in relation to cultural safety.

Next steps

In our next bulletin, we will share an overview of what we heard during our service design workshops and consultations.