Speaking up with the regional voice | Our role in the Isaac Navicare pilot for Mental Health

Since 2021, GWCommunities has been involved with Wesley Medical Research and QUT in undertaking a three-phased project to develop and deliver a new model of mental health care to address the rising demand for mental health services in rural and regional Queensland. This involved a co-design process of engagement with the Isaac mining communities to determine a pilot model of care. The chosen Layered Care Navigation Model combines a care navigation approach with collaborative in-situ service delivery, community development and tailored telehealth solutions. This new care program, Isaac Navicare, in operation since September 2021, has been overwhelmingly embraced by Isaac communities with an additional Mental Health Care Navigator commencing late 2022.

 The next stage of the project is to improve access to and uptake of mental health care for people living in regional Queensland , by reducing barriers and increasing service options through the implementation of 3 NaviCare pilot programs in the Bowen Basin . Step 1 of this implementation stage is an evaluation of the current Isaac NaviCare pilot in particular looking at access and uptake of the service and cost of implementation.

 GWCommunities continues to be a proud partner with QUT and Wesley Medical Research on the NaviCare journey. As a regional Community Development organisation having regular connection with our regional communities, we undertake grass roots conversation, listen to and hear community issues and opinions so that we can then represent and advocate for these matters in projects such as this.

In this regional capacity, in November 2023, GWCommunities participated in the Clermont conversations to investigate the establishment of the next pilot site. We support NaviCare as a person-centred, effective mental health care model and look forward to seeing further development and implementation in the GW Region