Co-design Working group

AWH is seeking up to six community members and six staff members to be part of the Co-Design team for the new Inpatient Mental Health Unit. Member costs will be compensated.

We are also looking for people with any kind of lived experience of mental health who may not want to be part of the formal team, but are willing to meet with the Co-Design team members to provide their input. These Stakeholders will have the opportunity to provide input in the Co-Design process below.

The new Inpatient Mental Health Unit (new Nolan House) is currently in its earliest phase where the architects look at where the unit will be built, what the key functions of the building are and roughly what it will look like. This will result in a funding bid to NSW Health for the construction of the building.

AWH is looking for a Co-Design team to partner with our architects to design our inpatient mental health unit and systems of care. We are would like to hear from:

-        people with a lived experience of mental health conditions that have required admission to a hospital;

-        carers, families or kinship groups of those people admitted to a mental health unit within a hospital; and

-        current or former staff members with experience in admitted mental health care.

Co-design is more collaborative than traditional consultation. It is a way of bringing consumers, carers, families and health workers together to improve services in partnership with each other. Planning and designing services and buildings with people that have experience of the problem or service means that the final solution is more likely to meet their needs.

It is a shift from seeking involvement or participation after the groundwork has been done, to seeking consumer to both define the problems and design the solutions.

The architects are responsible for producing three documents:

1.     Functional Brief: this tells us what the unit has to have in it. How many rooms? Which room needs to be next to another? What sort of rooms are needed?

2.     Master Plan: This tells us where will the unit be built. What does it need to be near or away from. How many floors?

3.     Schematic Design: This is the first version of the design for the unit. It takes the above two documents and gives us a rough floor plan in the end location.

Over the next six month the architects will be working on the three documents above in phases. The first phase is Functional Brief. This requires attendance at three workshops at 11am on the following dates:

Wednesday 20 October – Introduction to the project and Co-design

Wednesday 27 October – Key concepts and ideas

Wednesday 10 November – Feedback on preliminary functional design.

Co-design team members will be required also to consult with Stakeholders who have nominated to work with them in between workshops. This can be supported in any way that is required.

While we would prefer to have these face to face, we will have each of these via a ‘Teams’ video conference meeting. Participants will need to have internet and computer access

Co-Design team members Expression of Interest

Email projects@awh.org.au  by Friday 15 October with the following information:

•         Full Name, email, phone number
•        Confirmation that  you can attend all three workshops
•        Confirmation that you are willing to consult other Stakeholders in between the workshops
•        Preferred role on the Co-Design team (consumer, carer, family member, kinship group, staff member)
•         A sentence or two about why you want to be involved.
•         Any support that you require.

Please note that if you would prefer to have a conversation regarding this, you can call the Project Director, Louise on 02 6051 7582.

Stakeholders for consultation Expression of Interest

Email projects@awh.org.au  by Monday 18 October with the following information:

•        Full Name, email, phone number
•         Confirmation that  you are available between 20 October and 10 February
•         Identify which lived experienced group you would like to represent (consumer, carer, family member, kinship group, staff member)
•         A sentence or two about why you want to be involved.
•         Any support that you require.
•         Preferred method of contact – phone, email or face to face.