The challenge at hand

Rising market pressures and indications from government commissioning powers have meant that service providers in the mental health sector face difficult strategic considerations for the future of their service provision. Sector and market funders are continually seeking to address the widespread problems of:

• poor access rates and excessive wait times,
• lack of integration and capacity to transfer callers ‘seamlessly’ to other services;
• lack of step-up services for callers with more complex needs; and
• the existence of too many helplines with overlapping roles.

Our client, On The Line Australia (OTLA), reflected on the future of its services and requested independent support to evaluate the rationale for considering a strategic merger with a national support helpline aligned with its purpose and values.

How we helped

Impact Co. had the opportunity to support the management team and board of OTLA in the evaluation and viability of the strategic option available to them to pursue an amalgamation with a national helpline provider.

The project team engaged in consultation with executive staff, operational and clinical staff as well as the boards of both organisations to run engagement activities and workshops.

These activities were designed to help aid the decision-making progress for a potential amalgamation and included the following:

• Facilitation of a strategic planning workshop with Clinical Director Team related to service and technical transition ,
• Planning and facilitation of a joint board workshop day bringing together both organistions to discuss their potential amalgamation, conflicts and define a practical transition plan,
• Design and facilitation of several staff engagement workshops to involve staff in transition planning and receive feedback from their people,

These conversations resulted in important strategic feedback that would help Impact Co. build out its case for evaluation and a recommendation report to support the Board's decision-making.

The impact

Off the back of Impact Co.'s recommendations, OTLA made the strategic decision to move forward with the next stage of the amalgamation. Both parties signed the Heads of Agreement documentation, and in October 2023 the amalgamation was publicly announced. These organisations continue to work together to streamline their services to deliver better suicide prevention, mental health and counselling services to Australians.