Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network
The challenge at hand
In 2020 Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network (PHN) funded the establishment of a mental health and wellbeing service for young people living in the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges. Inspiro developed the model of the Lilydale Integrated Youth Health Hub (the Hub) to provide a single point for young people aged 12 - 25 years and their families and carers to a range of no-cost or low-cost health and wellbeing services. These services included mental health and physical health services, life skills development and community and social services.
How we helped
In 2022, Eastern Melbourne PHN engaged Impact Co. to undertake an evaluation to assess how well the Hub was implemented and operationalised.
Impact Co. developed an Evaluation Framework including a program logic and key evaluation questions to guide the evaluation. Given the specific scope was related to service implementation and service delivery (and not outcomes) it was important the program logic delineated clearly between service establishment, implementation and delivery activities.
In addition, the Hub’s implementation occurred at the same time as the COVID-19 restrictions in Victoria. This required the project team to develop a specific and robust timeline to accurately distinguish between barriers created by COVID-19 restrictions (in particular lockdowns) and other implementation related barriers.
The 12-month evaluation included documentation review, data analysis, a cost-benefit analysis and extensive qualitative interviews with stakeholders including in-person interviews with young people who accessed the service.
During the evaluation the Hub closed, which required the project team to take a flexible and sensitive approach to engaging with stakeholders particularly the young people who were highly engaged with the service.
The final stage of the evaluation involved in-person workshops with EMPHN and Inspiro to identify how learnings from the evaluation could be incorporated in future commissioning and service delivery.
The impact
The evaluation co-produced several recommendations with Eastern Melbourne PHN and Inspiro for how innovative models can be commissioned and delivered in future.
Impact Co. acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which our offices stand, and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge their continuing relationship to this land, its waterways and seas and the ongoing living cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Australia. This land always was and always will be the land of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
