The First Step Program Limited
A new model to extend First Step’s support for people with complex mental health issues and addiction.
- Project: Delivering a Whole Person, Whole System Model
- Amount: $450,000 over three years
- Year(s) Funded: 2024
A Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, which began in 2019 and handed down its findings in 2021, was difficult reading. Then state premier Daniel Andrews had declared the system “broken” and the report agreed, saying Victoria’s system to treat those suffering mental health issues had “catastrophically failed to live up to expectations.”
As the state government has wrestled with how to respond to the recommendations, First Step’s integrated care model has been recognised as a way forward, with Helen Macpherson Smith Trust committing $450,000 towards First Step’s “Delivering a Whole Person, Whole System Model”. The Trust’s support is helping First Step document evidence and data proving the effectiveness of its work, as well as guaranteeing staffing levels to ensure operational and financial stability, grow community engagement and funding relationships, and lead cultural reform through education and innovations.
The grant showcases the Trust’s belief in listening to experts, allowing the thought leaders at First Step to inform us regarding where they need support and how they can best utilise our resources for long-term success.
Founded in 2000, First Step has long been recognised as a leader in potential mental health treatment system change, being chosen to drive the Victorian Department of Health’s Integrated Care Pilot in 2019/20, and continues to play a vital role.
Its model offers a welcoming, hope-filled environment for people seeking support for alcohol and other drug use, as well as mental distress. A multi-disciplinary team of doctors, psychologists, nurses, mental health support, lawyers, care coordinators, counsellors and psycho-social supports are all available, on site, to assist those requiring such dedicated care to feel safe and supported as they seek to become well and re-enter society.
The independent Impact Evaluation that HMST has committed to funding is seen as an essential development to guide the wider future of mental health care, proving the effectiveness, humanity and long-term benefits of First Step’s integrated model. “Delivering a Whole Person, Whole System Model” seeks to tackle the systematic barriers to support that currently exist, created by a treatment sector that First Step believes is underfunded and stigmatised.
The project’s goals are ambitious but ones that the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust entirely support. The hope is to create genuine, integrated pathways out of mental health distress and addiction so that people can enjoy better mental and physical health and participate in society and the workplace. This can lead to safer, healthier communities, reduced crime, less pressure on families, hospitals, prisons and the welfare system.
A crucial element of the ‘Delivering a Whole Person, Whole System Model’ was the recruitment of an experienced Government Relations Advisor to pursue avenues for sustainability, and also to advocate on a state and federal level for the recognition and uptake of our unique model.
This appointment has highlighted just how much we did not know about the inner workings of government, and how to get a project from initial inspiration to government funded reality. Within weeks we’ve had productive meetings with government departments and minister’s offices to progress First Step’s plans for improving service delivery for people with co-occurring needs including drug use. We are optimistic about real outcomes for First Step, our clients and others in the community who need multi-disciplinary services.
Patrick Lawrence, Chief Executive Officer
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