May 2023

Lee, G. Y., McKenna, S., Song, Y. J. C., Hutcheon, A., Hockey, S. J., Laidler, R., Occhipinti, J. A., Perry, C., Lindsay-Smith, T., Ramsay, A., Choi, S., Feirer, D., Shim, A. W., Cottle, J., Mukherjee, A., New, J., Yu, R., Scott, E. M., Freebairn, L., & Hickie, I. B. (2023). Strengthening mental health research outcomes through genuine partnerships with young people with lived or living experience: A pilot evaluation study. Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy, 26(4), 1703–1715. https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.13777

April 2023

A system dynamics model was used to simulate the impact on population mental health indicators of allowing people to book some Medicare-subsidised sessions with psychologists and other mental health care professionals without a referral (direct access), and of increasing the annual growth rate in specialist mental health care capacity (consultations).

Vacher C, Skinner A, Occhipinti JA, Rosenberg S, Ho N, Song YJC, Hickie IB.; Med J Aust. 2023 Apr 17;218(7):309-314. doi: 10.5694/mja2.51903. Epub 2023 Mar 27.; PMID: 36971040 Improving access to mental health care: a system dynamics model of direct access to specialist care and accelerated specialist service capacity growth.

December 2022

The social and emotional wellbeing of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should be supported through an Indigenous-led and community empowering approach. Applying systems thinking via participatory approaches is aligned with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research paradigms and can be an effective method to deliver a decision support tool for mental health systems planning for Indigenous communities. Evaluations are necessary to understand the effectiveness and value of such methods, uncover protective and healing factors of social and emotional wellbeing, as well as to promote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander self-determination over allocation of funding and resources.

Lee GY, Robotham J, Song YJC, Occhipinti JA, Troy J, Hirvonen T, Feirer D, Iannelli O, Loblay V, Freebairn L, Agung-Igusti R, Chang EP, Dudgeon P, Hickie IB.; Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Dec 21;20(1):53. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20010053. PMID: 36612375; Partnering with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples: An Evaluation Study Protocol to Strengthen a Comprehensive Multi-Scale Evaluation Framework for Participatory Systems Modelling through Indigenous Paradigms and Methodologies.

April 2022

Our youth are Australia's greatest asset. The economics stream for this program will develop an investment approach that values the full impacts of smarter policies to improve health, social and economic outcomes. The social return on investment can be enormous.

Source: Lawson KD, Occhipinti JA, Freebairn L, Skinner A, Song YJC, Lee GY, Huntley S, Hickie IB. A Dynamic Approach to Economic Priority Setting to Invest in Youth Mental Health and Guide Local Implementation: Economic Protocol for Eight System Dynamics Policy Models. Front Psychiatry. 2022 Apr 29;13:835201. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.835201. PMID: 35573322; PMCID: PMC9103687.

 

February 2022

People are at the centre of our approach. We combine the expertise of local people with cutting edge science and technologies to develop decision support tools that can inform planning for youth mental health services in their community

Source: Freebairn L, Occhipinti JA, Song YJC, Skinner A, Lawson K, Lee GY, Hockey SJ, Huntley S, Hickie IB. Participatory Methods for Systems Modeling of Youth Mental Health: Implementation Protocol. JMIR Res Protoc. 2022 Feb 7;11(2):e32988. doi: 10.2196/32988. PMID: 35129446; PMCID: PMC8861863.

 
 

April 2022

There is a need to improve evaluation efforts in participatory modelling. Our program evaluation is underpinned by all the latest evidence to ensure every element of our research is transparent.

Source: Lee GY, Hickie IB, Occhipinti JA, Song YJC, Skinner A, Camacho S, Lawson K, Hilber AM, Freebairn L. Presenting a comprehensive multi-scale evaluation framework for participatory modelling programs: A scoping review. PLoS One. 2022 Apr 22;17(4):e0266125. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266125. PMID: 35452462; PMCID: PMC9032404.

 
 

September 2021

Knowing what will and won't work to improve youth mental health requires more than just good evidence; it requires decision support tools that can help us understand how programs and initiatives will perform when introduced into complex, changing real world systems.

Source: Occhipinti JA, Skinner A, Doraiswamy PM, Fox C, Herrman H, Saxena S, London E, Song YJC, Hickie IB. Mental health: build predictive models to steer policy. Nature. 2021 Sep;597(7878):633-636. doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-02581-9. PMID: 34565800.

 

October 2021

Scaling up the systems modelling approach to improve youth mental health nationally and internationally requires a blueprint for diverse contexts. This protocol paper for the ‘Right care, first time, where you live’ Program provides a first exemplar.

Source: Occhipinti JA, Skinner A, Freebairn L, Song YJC, Ho N, Lawson K, Lee GY, Hickie IB. Which Social, Economic, and Health Sector Strategies Will Deliver the Greatest Impacts for Youth Mental Health and Suicide Prevention? Protocol for an Advanced, Systems Modelling Approach. Front Psychiatry. 2021 Oct 13;12:759343. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.759343. PMID: 34721120; PMCID: PMC8548722.