Joint Regional Plan Collaborative Workshop with Gold Coast Health

On 28 November 2019 nearly 100 stakeholders came together to as part of the development of a Gold Coast Joint Regional Plan for Mental, Suicide Prevention, Alcohol and Other Drugs services.

On 28 November 2019 nearly 100 stakeholders came together to as part of the development of a Gold Coast Joint Regional Plan for Mental, Suicide Prevention, Alcohol and Other Drugs services. The collective effort and input by those who attended is helping to shape regional priorities that will contribute to our shared vision: ‘the people of the Gold Coast live life with meaning and purpose with the help of a compassionate, connected and diverse community’.

Lived experience perspective at the workshop

A range of people with lived experience participated in the workshop and to begin the day we heard from three people with lived experience who emphasized:

• a collective vision for making the peer workforce ubiquitous in the Gold Coast region
• ‘ People may not have caused all their own problems but have to solve them anyway’
  • We must acknowledge the intergenerational aspects of mental health and the importance of early intervention; while also ensuring models of service are flexible and respond to individual’s changing needs along their recovery journey, a journey that is often not linear.’
• Need to establish greater links to support safety, security, and connection that maintains quality of life.
• While the pace may seem slow, system reform progress has been made over the past couple decades by people advocating for change to occur. We need local people and priorities driving reform at a regional level and strong national and state leadership creating an enabling environment for these regional systems to flourish.

Shared challenges and opportunities across the life stages

Throughout the day participants were split into life stage groups: Children and Youth, Adults, Older People, and also explored life stage transitions. While there were specific issues and opportunities discussed within these life stage contexts, there were numerous shared system challenges, applicable across the lifespan. Furthermore, these shared system challenges aligned with findings from the Suicide Prevention Leadership Group and Alcohol and Other Drug sector workshop. Generally, these system issues fit into the five foundations of our strategic framework. Additionally, there was a range of feedback related to evidence-based system and service development for people of all ages. At a system level there is a need to ensure these types of services exist within the region and at a service level, embedding these capabilities and optimising models of care to respond to these priorities. Strategies to increase capacity at a system and service level include: needs assessments, service co-design and re-design, contract requirements, evaluation and professional development. Another theme across the life span was the need for an improved response to people in distress. People seeking support for themselves or someone else experiencing high levels of mental health distress or suicidal crisis should have access to expanded service options.

A draft Joint Regional Plan will soon be available for public consultation.