The Regional Peer Workforce Framework

The Framework

The South Eastern NSW Mental Health Lived Experience (Peer) Work Framework is the first such Framework in Australia and is envisaged to play a significant role in the ongoing development of the Lived Experience (Peer) Workforce across NSW.

You can access the Framework here and also watch a recording of the online launch event below:

Background

COORDINARE undertook a review of mental health and suicide prevention services across the South Eastern NSW region. We consulted with consumers, carers and service providers and found:

• an inequitable distribution of primary mental health services across South Eastern NSW
• high rates of hospitalisation for self-harm, particularly for young people and Aboriginal people
• increasing rates of mental health related hospitalisation overall.

As a result, we have been working with the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District (ISLHD) and Southern NSW Local Health District (SNSWLHD) to develop a Regional Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan (Plan) which brings about positive change for mental health consumers, their families and carers. The Plan is an action of the 5^th National Mental Health Plan.

The Plan has nine priority areas against which key actions require working together across the health system, with consumers and other stakeholders, to provide better integrated care for people with mental illness. It is available here.

The first priority action of this Plan is to develop a regional Peer Workforce Framework and in an innovative arrangement the NSW Ministry of Health has provided $85,000 through SNSWLHD to complete this work.

COORDINARE has used the funding to commission Dr Leanne Craze of Craze Lateral Solutions to develop this Framework. Dr Craze is highly regarded within the consumer movement and the peer workforce, having authored the National Framework for recovery-oriented mental health services and developed the Mental Health Commission of NSW’s Peer Wok Hub. Dr Craze partnered with Being, an independent and state-wide peak organisation for people with lived experience of mental illness in NSW and Bé Aadam, a lived experience consultant.

The Framework is available to other PHNs and Local Health Districts to use as a template as they seek to develop their own Frameworks. This is in the context of work beginning on the forthcoming National Peer Workforce Development Guidelines and the NSW Peer Workforce Framework.

Design and development phase survey and conversations

As a part of the Design and Development phase, consumers of mental health services were invited to respond to a survey about the value and roles of peer work.

A summary of ideas and views collected during the Discovery phase is available here, as well as a draft Table of Contents for the Framework. Following this, a brief survey seeking the views of peer workers and other mental health professionals on the draft Table of Contents was conducted. People were also invited to take part in conversations throughout the Design and development phase.