Optimisation of an opportunistic mental health screening care model for general practice

Opportunity

General practitioners play a central role in providing mental health care, yet GPs vary in their capacity to offer quality mental health support and can feel unsupported in doing so. Digital support tools and care navigation offer a pathway to address this gap and improve outcomes for patients in primary care settings.

Intervention

The Centre's research team worked with consumers, GPs, and care navigators to optimise the Link-Me+ mental health care model for general practice. The team crystallised service and product design requirements into a wireframe prototype, then conducted clinical simulation to test the prototype and workflow in a simulated general practice environment. End-to-end systems testing was also performed to ensure all technical components worked together.

Impact of simulation

Clinical simulation, user testing, and end-to-end system demonstration identified key improvements to the digital solution and training implementation strategies, which were subsequently implemented.

Progression to pilot was deliberately slowed until these improvements were addressed, de-risking the pilot and ensuring Link-Me+ was ready for successful implementation.