Right care, first time, where you live program

The University of Sydney’s “Right care, first time, where you live” program is aimed at empowering young people to thrive in their communities by strengthening mental health systems to provide responsive and coordinated care. Using systems modelling and simulation, the program equips regional health service providers with decision support tools to inform cost-effective investments, coordinate cross-sectoral care, build workforce capacity, and integrate long-term monitoring and evaluation processes.

The program is partnering with WA Primary Health Alliance to build a systems dynamics model to inform investments in programs, services and initiatives for the Great Southern region. The University of Sydney team used data from the Australian Child and Youth Wellbeing Atlas — along with administrative data, research evidence, and local knowledge — to build a systems model that accurately represents the region. This model is used to develop an understanding of the dynamics of psychological distress, mental disorder, mental health service usage, and influencing factors such as early life exposures, drug and alcohol misuse, community cohesion, and participation in employment, education and training.

Within the Atlas, the team looked at key indicators including the number of community mental health care (CMHC) service contacts, ED presentations, mental health related hospital admissions, and deliberate self-harm hospitalisations for young people in the Great Southern region. Given the project's focus on the 15–24 age group, which is fully covered by the Atlas, this data was crucial for the model. The model will then be used to simulate the potential impacts of various programs implemented in the region.