Public Sector Perspectives: Co-design and mental health

Co-design brings citizens and stakeholders together to design new products, services and policies. In our latest episode of Public Sector Perspectives, we explore the use of co-design principles in implementing some of the interim recommendations of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.

In our latest episode of Public Sector Perspectives, IPAA Victoria explores the use of co-design principles in implementing some of the interim recommendations of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.

The Victorian Government describes co-design under the umbrella of human-centred design. The major aims of co-design are to bridge the gap between stakeholders with communities in an impactful way and design solutions that respond to public need and within government constraints.

In theory, co-design is a relatively simple idea: it brings together different groups of people to design new products, services and policies. In practice, however, the process of collaboration depends on:

• people bringing a participatory mindset

• having a genuine strategy of inclusion

• building consensus amongst people whose experiences and perspectives can often be very different.

Like any really substantive change process, thinking about co-design means thinking about power: who has it and who lacks it?

The conversation features Paul Flowerdew (Department of Health), Michelle Swann (Department of Health), Karen Gallagher and Alex Moshevelis at Today, one of Australia’s leading social impact agencies, which uses design and technology to make change happen, at pace and at scale. Today were selected by the Department to help provide and develop co-design capacity in the Department’s organisational response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission.

Podcast speakers

• Paul Flowerdew, Director of the Transformation Strategy and Program Management Office in the Mental Health and Wellbeing Division of the Victorian Department of Health.

• Michelle Swann, Principal Adviser for Family/Carer Lived Experience in the Mental Health and Wellbeing Division at the Department of Health.

• Karen Gallagher and Alex Moshevelis who are co-design practitioners at Today.

IPAA Victoria would like to thank our speakers for sharing their insights and adding weight to the conversation of co-design and mental health.

Public Sector Perspectives is a podcast produced by IPAA Victoria, the professional association for people who work in and with the public purpose sector in Victoria.