Status: In progress
What the Royal Commission said
The Royal Commission called for a new type of service for people with mental illness or psychological distress.
The new service will provide short-term treatment, care and support in a residential community setting.
The new service should be:
- an alternative to acute hospital-based care
- delivered and managed by a workforce made up mainly of people with lived experience
- operated in partnership with an area mental health service, and either a community health service, or a mental health community support service
- independently evaluated.
The Royal Commission identified gaps in mental health services offered to Victorians.
Lack of appropriate community-based care means a hospital admission is often the only way people can get help when they are acutely unwell.
This means:
- consumers have reduced choice within a limited range of responses
- people seek help at hospital emergency departments
- some people can't get the right support when and where they need it.
In the past, people with lived experience have had little say in the design and running of bed-based services.
The Commission wants this to change and expects that future services will be more diverse and responsive.
What we've achieved
- Invested $12 million since 2021 and appointed Mind Australia to lead the establishment of Victoria’s first Lived Experience Residential Service as an alternative to hospital care, to create Victoria’s first consumer-led residential service.
- The flagship service will respond to the diverse needs and preferences of consumers and offer more choice in the system.
- Led by Mind Australia in partnership with Barwon Health, the Lived Experience Residential Service will provide holistic and safe peer-led supports for consumers experiencing high levels of distress or crisis.
- Consumers have led the development of the new service model and had a genuine voice in designing the new space.
What's next?
- The new service will provide a range of peer-led supports in a home-like setting in the community.
- The service will exclusively be run by workers with lived experience, which places peer-support approaches and consumer leadership at the centre of the service.
- The environment will be inclusive, safe, welcoming, accessible and offer a range of service options.
- The new service will lay the groundwork for a future that elevates the voices of people with lived experience in all areas of the mental health system across Victoria.
- A trial of the service, and associated evaluation, will be undertaken in 2026 in a purpose-built facility in Moolap, Greater Geelong.
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