Understanding consumer experiences of community-managed mental health services
Your Experience of Service – Community-Managed Organisations (YES-CMO) is a survey that captures consumer feedback from specific NSW Health-funded community-managed mental health services across the state. The data gathered provides valuable insights that support workers and organisations to reflect on practice, improve service delivery and demonstrate impact.
Understanding how people experience community-managed mental health services is critical to improving care, strengthening workforce capability and demonstrating the value of community-based support. The YES-CMO survey, in collaboration with NSW Health InforMH and co-designed with BEING – Mental Health Consumers and Mental Health Carers NSW, gathers feedback from consumers about their experiences of care when accessing the following NSW Health-funded programs delivered by community-managed mental health organisations:
Housing and Accommodation Support Initiative (HASI)/Community Living Supports (CLS)
Family and Carer programs
The rich demographic and qualitative data provides important insights that inform Mental Health Coordinating Council’s (MHCC) advocacy for increased investment and systemic reform, whilst also supporting workforce development and program improvement across the sector.
Background
The YES-CMO questionnaire has evolved since 2018 from pilot to implementation in NSW with the support of InforMH, Systems Analytics Branch NSW Health.
Key milestones
2016: The YES-CMO questionnaire was adapted from the YES survey utilised in the public mental health system nationally, for use by community-managed organisations.
2017-2019: A NSW working group developed an MHCC sector-led pilot to trial YES-CMO across NSW Health funded CMO services.
October 2019 – December 2020: The pilot reported on 15 months of data collection, with responses collected via paper surveys.
January – June 2021: MHCC published the pilot evaluation report, and with the support ofNSW Health InforMH and the sector working group, expanded full implementation was endorsed.
April 2022: A digital version of the YES-CMO consumer survey was made available in addition to the paper version.
October 2023: MHCC published the first Annual Report reflecting broader implementation across (2022–2023), capturing data from all service providers of NSW Ministry of Health-funded HASI/CLS and Family and Carer programs.
Now in its fourth year since implementation, the YES-CMO survey continues to reflect NSW Health’s and MHCC’s ongoing commitment to sector collaboration and lived experience partnership.
