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Psychosocial disability has been under the national public policy spotlight since the introduction of Australia’s National Disability Strategy and the NDIS, with the most recent major developments being the release of the Disability Royal Commission and NDIS Independent Review Panel Final Reports in late 2023. The current policy context surrounding the psychosocial disability sector involves the following:
Noting this current policy context, and the lack of policy input that people with lived experience have had, the NMHCCF as the national voice of Lived Experience decided to hold Lived Experience Leading the Way: National Psychosocial Disability Roundtable. The event was held on 20 June, 2024 at the ParkRoyal, Melbourne Airport. Overall, 72 people attended in-person and 19 online. It was organised by the Psychosocial Disability Working Group of the NMHCCF and staff of Mental Health Australia, which auspices the NMHCCF.
Using its funding and status as both the DRO and DRCO for psychosocial disability, the NMHCCF brought together the Australian psychosocial disability sector to put the case forward for the development of a national co-production framework for psychosocial disability. Discussions revolved around the essential elements to include in the framework, namely guiding principles, human rights, intersectionalities, co-design processes, language, approaches to support, and including the needs of families, supporters, kin, and carers in services and support for psychosocial disability. It was evident that co-production should involve a fair and iterative process between people with a lived experience of psychosocial disability and their families, supporters, kin, and carers and decision-makers from state, territory, and national governments, peak bodies, mental health and disability advocates, service providers, and researchers.
Ultimately, the key elements of a co-production framework for psychosocial disability would include:
Lived Experience Leading the Way: National Psychosocial Disability Roundtable showed that there is an appetite nationally for Lived Experience, government, and organisations to work together in system and policy planning, design, and evaluation of the psychosocial disability sector. The Lived Experience community is motivated to create an authentic co-design framework. However, the initial onus will be on government to overcome the understandable cynicism in the community after many years of inauthentic engagement and top-down governance. On the other hand, a general optimism exists that a co-design framework of psychosocial disability can be successfully implemented in the coming years. For this to happen, it is important to begin the process as soon as possible while there is groundswell of Lived Experience support and national attention on the psychosocial disability sector through the re-design of the NDIS and the development of Foundational Supports.
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