How can you help people living with mental health challenges to live more fulfilling lives in the communities of their choice?

Mental Health Coordinating Council have developed a range of learning materials with the ‘Supporting Community Connection’
Community Engagement Education Package (CEEP) Project. These resources are available for community workers and carers to support community connection for people living with mental health challenges outside of a funded NDIS package and crisis mental health services.

These learning materials have been co-designed with people with lived experience of a mental health condition and project partners. For more information on how the learning materials were developed and how best to use them, see our Good Practice Guide and Project Report.

Project Background

During 2018/2020, the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) provided NSW Information, Linkages and Capacity-building (ILC) Jurisdictional Grant funding for MHCC to co-design a Community Engagement Education Package (CEEP). The ‘Supporting Community Connection’ CEEP Project explored and contributed to strengthening community capacity to increase social inclusion of people living with mental health challenges.

Good Practice Guide

Download the learning material here

ILC projects are about people undertaking activities to achieve community inclusion outcomes for people living with disabilities.

People

MHCC co-designed the learning materials with:

• Community Workers working outside of mental health settings
• Volunteers working, or interested in working, with people with mental health challenges
• Peers; this means people with lived experience of mental health conditions and their families/friends, and
• Many other interested people.

Activities

The ‘Supporting Community Connection’ learning materials and ideas for opportunities to use them are now available at no cost to help supporters better support people living with a mental health condition and, or at risk to develop, a psychosocial disability who are ineligible for, or do not want to have, a funded National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) plan.

Co-design Working Groups

The co-design process focuses on the involvement of people who are ineligible for, or do not want to have, a funded NDIS plan. MHCC held four Co-design Working Groups in each of two learning material trial sites. See below co-design project reports for further information.

1. December 2018 co-design reports

Western NSW
Central South Eastern Sydney

2. May 2019 co-design reports

Western NSW
Central South Eastern Sydney

3. November 2019 co-design reports

Western NSW
Central South Eastern Sydney

4. May 2020 co-design reports

Western NSW – 22/4 & Central South Eastern Sydney – 30/4

Webinars

Webinar 1 – 29 May 2019: How can Community Workers, volunteers and peers learn to better support people living with mental health conditions to have a good life outside of a funded NDIS package (i.e. to better access mainstream and community services)?

• Access a recording of the webinar here (closed captioned)
• Webinar PowerPoint
• Webinar Report and Transcript

This webinar was hosted in partnership with Being (the NSW consumer peak body) and Mental Health Carers NSW Inc (the NSW carer peak body); our key project partners. We told people about the project. The draft CEEP learning framework arising from initial co-design was discussed and further co-design occurred).

Webinar 2 – 26 February 2020: How do you support people to have a more fulfilling life in the communities of their choice outside of an NDIS funded package?

• Access a recording of the webinar here (closed captioned)
• Webinar PowerPoint
• Webinar Report and Transcript

This webinar told people about the project with a focus on reflection upon the trials of the learning materials in Sydney in October and Dubbo in November 2019, and to continue co-design the learning materials. The Project Manager speaks with a Community Worker, volunteer and peer who attended the trial.

This webinar considered the experiences of learning material trial participants.

Webinar 3 – 10 June 2020: How can you help people living with mental health challenges to live more fulfilling lives in the communities of their choice?

This webinar launched the final learning materials, ‘Good Practice Guide’ and ‘Final Report’, and celebrated the lived experience co-design of the project and its learning opportunities. The learning opportunities are important in the COVID-19 environment where we are expecting an increase in people looking for help that have mental health challenges.

This webinar considered the experiences of co-design participants and encouraged use of the learning materials nationally by people, programs, organisation and communities.

• Access a recording of the webinar here (closed captioned)
• Webinar Powerpoint
• Webinar Report and Transcript

Outcomes

The outcomes that the ‘Supporting Community Connection’ CEEP Project helps to address are that people living with, or at risk to develop, psychosocial disability related to a mental health condition:

• participate in and benefit from the same community activities as everyone else
• are connected and have the information they need to make decisions.

PROJECT FEEDBACK
MHCC wants to hear your ideas about how Community Workers and others can learn to better support people living with mental health challenges to have a more fulfilling life in the communities of their choice outside of a funded NDIS package.

Email us to provide feedback, ideas and opportunities;
info@mhcc.org.au
Subject: Supporting Community Connection