Western Sydney systems model of the youth mental health launched

The Western Sydney systems model of youth mental health system launched recently as part of the ‘Right care, first time, where you live’ Program.

Western Sydney Model

Using a participatory approach, this model includes the interrelationship among different factors from the following subsystems that capture the main dynamics of the youth mental health system:

• Population
• Labour force
• Education
• Homelessness
• Family and domestic violence
• Justice
• Substance misuse
• Social cohesion
• Early life adversity
• Psychological distress
• Suicidal behaviours and mental health services

Participatory system dynamics model development

As the modeller, I had the opportunity to work closely with the Western Sydney Primary Health Network (PHN), academia and the community, particularly the young people with lived experience who were involved in developing the Western Sydney Youth Mental Health Decision Support tool.

In our participatory system dynamics model development process, the model was presented to the participants and we engaged with it by going through customised interventions defined by the participants to see what would be the possible trajectory of important variables in different subsystems under the scenarios of broader social determinants. It was fascinating to see people engaging with it.

Participants reflection

You can see some reflections by the participants in this video:

Learn more

Thank you to everyone who was involved in this process.

Learn more about the ‘Right care, first time, where you live’ Program: https://www.rightcarefirsttimewhereyoulive.com.au