In considering what ‘good’ looks like in the context of social prescribing, we should start with why it’s not already happening. It seems logical to focus on a person’s health and social needs and from the work we’ve done with consumers and health professionals, there is shared recognition of the importance and need for something like social prescribing. 

With the continued focus on social prescribing as a ‘high-value, low-cost’ way of improving the responsiveness of the health system, we thought it would be worthwhile to unpack some of what we learnt in that project to share with other PHNs commissioning social prescribing service models or linkage program providers. This blog is the first of three in a South Eastern NSW case study series: what is social prescribing?

Through the experiences and insights shared with us during a project to strengthen the responsiveness of health service to the mental health literacy needs of the community, we thought there was value in unpacking what mental health literacy is, exploring how it can be built in communities, and discussing the role of health services. 

The development of the Cairns and Hinterland SPCAP has been quite the journey. Although experiencing a number of temporary disruptions, the end result has been more than worth it. The process so far has been a rewarding one with many highlights to report…

For the first semester of 2021, Beacon Strategies hosted two students on placement in the final year of completing their Masters of Public Health (MPH). In their final week of placement, we asked Carla and Emily to share some insights on what it was like to complete their MPH student placement.

Whether you engage a consultant or not, whether you go deep or light touch - there are a number of key steps that can set your strategic planning process up to be meaningful and insightful. By considering the following tips, you can ensure you have the information and insights you need to begin developing an effective strategic plan.

Recently, our team has closed out a number of PHN specific design projects. As a means of providing value for our PHN colleagues, we thought we would share some specific service design insights and tips for you to consider before running your next service design process.

The purpose of this meeting was to present all consultation findings that have been collected so far and present a list of activities that could potentially make it into the final Cairns and Hinterland Suicide Prevention Community Action Plan.

Through a series of face-to-face co-design sessions, we gained many insights from a range of community members’ perspectives. These insights will directly inform the development of the Suicide Prevention Community Action Plan (SP-CAP) for the Cairns and Hinterland region.