Primary Health Network Lead Site Evaluation
Associate Professor Meredith Harris and Professor Philip Burgess collaborated with a consortium, led by the University of Melbourne, to evaluate the approaches taken by lead Primary Health Networks (PHNs) to the planning, integration and delivery of mental health services, and to identify the implications for future government policy and the activities of PHNs.
The evaluation had two parts:
- Part A related to four focus areas – regional planning and service integration; stepped care; low intensity services; and youth enhanced services. It used a mixed methods design to assess implementation processes and impacts (early outcomes) of Lead Sites’ activities in relation to each of the focus areas.
- Part B related to a fifth focus area – clinical care coordination for adults with severe and complex mental illness. It involved a randomised controlled trial to evaluate a digitally supported, systematic, holistic, person‐centred approach to triaging mental health problems in general practice, called Link-me.
The evaluation was completed in 2020.
Publications
The first paper from Part A of the evaluation, providing a profile of PHN-commissioned child and youth mental health services, is available here: https://ijmhs.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13033-021-00440-8
The first paper from Part B of the evaluation, describing the design of the randomised controlled trial of Link-Me, is available here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1551714418306128?via%3Dihub
The second paper from Part B of the evaluation, describing the outcomes of the randomised controlled trial of Link-Me, is available here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30517-4/fulltext
The third paper from Part B of the the evaluation, reporting the cost-effectiveness of the randomised controlled trial of Link-Me, is available here: https://bmcprimcare.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12875-022-01839-z
Project team
Meredith Harris
Philip Burgess
Funding
Australian Government Department of Health
