The mental health alcohol and other drugs project was created in response to community concern about mental health, alcohol and other drugs. In 2018, place-based research was undertaken to collect statistical data and consult with service providers, government, consumers and community to undertake service mapping and to fully understand the mental health, alcohol and other drug needs in the Gladstone community. Findings of this research can be found here.
In order to address the identified current and future needs of mental health, alcohol and other drugs support a Working Group was established to develop a community-led response which includes:
An integrated, collaborative service gateway providing information and referral to mental health, alcohol and other drugs support to complement and support existing services to achieve an integrated and coordinated mental health, alcohol and other drugs service system for Gladstone.
Creating a movement to tackle both immediate need as well as long term solutions by using the collective impact approach.
It was identified that for collective impact effort to be effective, backbone support is needed to foster the cross-sector communication, alignment and collaboration.
Collective Action Social Impact Ltd was established as a backbone organisation – a ‘container for change’ to cultivate collaboration and align partners to move in concert towards shared goals.
More recently, Collective Action Social Impact Ltd, operating as Gladstone Mindcare, is driving community engagement that goes beyond co-design processes to an ongoing dialogue among the community and with partners about our shared aspirations and how to achieve them.
Our story is far from complete, in fact we are just getting started. We have an ambitious agenda to keep driving change. You can read about our latest initiatives here.
