We are excited to share that the Mental Health Program Early in Life Mental Health Service design project has been awarded gold at the Melbourne Design Awards for their CY-HOPE program (Child and Youth Hospital Outreach Post-Suicidal Engagement).
The award was given in the category of “Service – Government” which celebrates a creative and innovative solution design for the successful delivery and provision of services with an emphasis on system integration, user experience and product design.
“To be recognised at this level is truly gratifying,” says Rebecca Seward, Senior Clinical Psychologist and Senior Clinician Coordinator of the CY-HOPE Team. “It’s been exciting to be part of an innovative team that is responsive to the needs of young people and their families.”
The CY-HOPE program is a core component of Victoria’s suicide prevention framework 2016-25, which aims to halve Victoria’s suicide rate by 2025.
In 2022, the Monash Health CY-HOPE team was launched as part of the Early in Life Mental Health Service. It is a psychosocial support service that delivers responsive outreach to individuals following a suicide attempt, or for those considered to be at risk of suicide or self-harm.
The CY-HOPE team supports young people and their networks (family, friends, and other carers) for up to three months helping them to identify and build protective factors against suicide.
The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System (Royal Commission) recommended that the Department of Health, Victorian Government, fund four health services (Royal Children’s Hospital, Monash Children’s Hospital, Alfred Health and Orygen) to create, deliver and evaluate the first phase of an aftercare service for children and young people at risk of self-harm and suicide.
In 2021, the Department of Health provided funding to the four health services to co-design a new Child and Youth HOPE service and engaged Portable as a coach to support the co-design process.
All health services employed lived experience leads in their design teams, who were equal members of the local co-design team, working alongside clinicians and other service providers.
Congratulations to our local project team here at Monash Health as well as the project teams from the Department of Health and Portable.
Thank you to all those who gave their time to contribute to the design of the CY-HOPE Team.
You can read more about the award here.
Approved by Paula Hakesley