We are seeking people with lived or carer experience of accessing adult community mental health services in MLHD, to be part of our implementation groups. These groups will be driving the actions in our new Adult Community Mental Health Model of Care, which aims to improve service delivery across MLHD.

The Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol (MHDA) Service offers care and treatment to people of all ages.

We know that people experiencing mental health concerns need to have appropriate services available at various stages of their illness and/or recovery and to be able to have timely access to these services.

We identified that there was a need for a review of the local specialist adult community mental health model of care, with the aim of improving services. In 2016, we began a process of reviewing service delivery and creating a plan to improve services into the future.

The Model of Care (MOC) is designed to guide the practice of staff working in specialist adult community mental health services in MLHD. It sets out what we in MLHD believe to be good quality adult mental health care, and what people accessing our service should expect from their care journey with us.

The MOC can also be used by people with a lived experience of mental health concerns, their carers and support people, to assist in collaborative design and implementation of future service improvements.

Now that the Model of Care has been finalised, the next step is to put the themes and strategies into practice so that our Adult Mental Health services are working in line with the principles of care set out in the plan.

We have formed a Steering Group to oversee this process, and five sub-groups who will work directly on actioning the Key Themes in the plan.

The sub-groups are made up of staff from different Community Mental Health teams and at various levels of the organisation.

In line with the principle of Working in Partnership and to continue the co-design approach that has led to the development of the Model of Care, we want to make sure that the lived experience and carer perspective is also heard in our sub-groups. We also believe that people with lived experience, and carers, will have unique and valuable insights to bring into how care can be improved and meet the needs of people accessing our services.

We are inviting people with experience of accessing Community Mental Health services in MLHD, to be part of these sub-groups and help put the Model of Care into practice to improve services into the future.

If you think you might like to join a sub-group, please complete the Expression of Interest registration below and we will be in touch with you to discuss your interest.

We are looking for people who:

• Have experience of accessing a MLHD Community Mental Health service in the last five years (either themselves, or as a carer for another person);
• Can commit (within reason) to attending meetings (online/by phone) of their sub-group once per month, during usual business hours, for the duration of the project (expected to be around 2 years);
• Are willing to sign a participation and confidentiality agreement, and provide photo identification (standard process for anyone taking on a committee or ongoing project role with us).

We are hoping to have 1-2 lived experience and/or carer representatives on each sub-group. Representatives will be equal and valued members of the group and will receive support from the Project Lead and the MHDA Coordinator Consumer Participation Strategy, as needed.

Lived Experience and Carer representatives will be paid for their time spent participating in sub-group meetings, in line with the MLHD MHDA Consumer and Carer Participation Remuneration Guidelines.

If you have any questions, or would like to express your interest via phone or email, please contact us on mlhd-mhda-experiences@health.nsw.gov.au

Expressions of interest are now closed.