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

As we approach the end of our Phase 3 service design activities, our focus has centred on completing one-on-one consultations with a range of organisations across the mental health and crisis space. We are also actively synthesising and consolidating the insights from all the consultations to inform the design work.

Project activities in the past fortnight

Service Design Consultations

As our sector-wide and lived and living experience (LLE) workshops – focused on both system and service design – have drawn to a close, our engagement efforts have focused on one-on-one consultations with a range of organisations, including:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled health organisations
• Disability support services
• LGBTQI+ support services
• Mental health and Alcohol and Other Drug service providers
• Peak bodies and advocacy organisations

The purpose of these one-on-one consultations has been to explore proposed design components across the five service models under development: Clinical Assistance, Telehealth, Outreach, Stabilisation, and Safe Spaces.

Discussions have focused on key components of each model, such as core functions, workforce, and system integration.

We are grateful for the insights and expertise shared through these sessions. All contributions – ideas, questions, and reflections – have been captured as part of our ongoing analysis and synthesis work and continues to inform the design thinking.

Validation Workshops
Alongside ongoing sector engagement, we have held three validation workshops with the Department of Health. These workshops provided an opportunity for open discussion around targeted design questions for each service model. The insights and feedback from these sessions have been carefully considered and incorporated into our evolving service design models.

Next steps
As our engagement and validation activities come to a close, our next steps will focus on further iterating the design work based on the insights and findings gathered. As each service model continues to evolve, we will also begin to consider key implementation factors – including feasibility, sequencing, and costings – with additional modelling to support these critical elements of our crisis service design work.