Opportunities and challenges
for new approaches based on
lived experience and customer
satisfaction
Dr Gerry Naughtin
Chief Executive, Mind Australia
mindaustralia.org.au
Purpose
• Offer some thinking about new ways of funding and
doing business in human service organisations
• Illustrate this in a practical way by outlining the
challenges and opportunities faced by Mind Australia
in reframing its business to the emerging market place
• Trying to think about responding to human service
needs outside of funding silos
mindaustralia.org.au
Drivers of Change
• Growth in demand
• Fiscal restraint
• Governments and consumers looking for more joined up,
effective and cheaper responses
• Growing focus on citizen-centric services
• Confidence in market mechanisms, across political
spectrum, to drive competitive reform and price reduction
in human service settings
• Increased policy focus on individual choice and control –
the personalisation agenda
mindaustralia.org.au
Characterising the emerging system
drivers
Driver
Current
Future
Success factors
Unique value
proposition
Commonality with
other funded
agencies
Differentiated
Understanding
differences and
commonalities
Service delivery
focus
Prescribed by funder
(outputs)
Brand
recognition
and value for
$
Individualised
Relationships,
brand and costs
matter
Staff performance
Important
Important
Choice of staff
member
Service user
expectations
Not important
because of
geographical
monopolies
Critical
Understanding
and framing
expectations
mindaustralia.org.au
Characterising the emerging system
drivers
Driver
Current
Future
Success Factors
Geographical
Coverage
Prescribed by
funder with
geographical
coverage of
national programs
Choice of provider
within regions
Opening up of
service
monopolies
Capacity to
broaden
geographical
reach at
affordable cost
Regulation
Detailed reporting
accountabilities
Reduction of red
tape
Simplify
accreditation
requirements
Government and
consumer interest
in service
competency,
popularity and
outcomes
Performance
Outputs and data
reporting highly
prescribed
Focus on
outcomes and
minimum data
requirements
Consumer
satisfaction and
connectivity will
be critical
mindaustralia.org.au
Characterising the emerging system
drivers
Driver
Current
Future
Success Factors
Cost
Standardised
unit of funding
Known $ for
defined funding
period
Funding variable
based on demand
Government and
consumer focus
on value for $
Scale, brand
recognition and IT
systems
Cash flow
Sector funding
Funding to NGO
Opening up
market to private,
statutory and
NGO agencies
Interest and costs
in continuing roles
as a service
provider
mindaustralia.org.au
Mind Australia – a case example
• Specialist providers of community mental health services in
South East Australia
• Target Group: people with severe and often long-term mental
ill-health and their carers
• Over 30 years experience supporting people with mental
health issues & their families & carers
• Budget 2013\2014 of $60 million with 75% of funding through
government block grants
• Generate $1.4 M per annum through fund raising
• Core service is the delivery of support services for people with
psychosocial disabilities and their carers
mindaustralia.org.au
Mind clients & services
• Wide range of services for people with a psychosocial
disability across 60 sites:
- General information & referral including telephone and webbased
- Individual support packages
- Groups and day programs
- Housing services
- Deliver over 400 residential bed-based places every day
- Family & carer specific services
- Specialist services – including care co-ordination, Prevention
Recovery Centres (PARCs) & specialist family therapy services,
Partners in Recovery Program
mindaustralia.org.au
Issues for mental health services in
Australia
(MH Commission 2012 Report Card)
• Limited participation of people with a lived experience in
services
• An estimated 900,000 people are missing out on services
that would help them each year
• High proportion of services are provided involuntarily
• Poor physical health and early death
• Participation in employment is low with only about a third
of people in work
• Need to strengthen capacity for self management through
effective education and learning strategies
• Focus on social and economic participation – not just
treatment
mindaustralia.org.au
Mind’s strategic challenge – in a
nutshell:
• Mind operates a variety of business models prescribed by
funders
• Move from block funding to personalised packages
• 75% of funding for current services will transition to NDIS
by July 2018
• NDIS may result in significant $ growth but policy settings
uncertain
• Many of the current community mental health service
models won’t be funded by 2018
mindaustralia.org.au
Mind’s strategic challenge
• To survive let alone thrive, Mind needs to:
– Transform and reposition existing business models, or exit them
– Develop new businesses and new business models
– Identify and invest in the organisational competencies and
foundations that will underpin customer value and business
success in the future
• While at the same time managing business as usual and
usual growth – while it lasts
mindaustralia.org.au
Mind film clip
mindaustralia.org.au
The shifting questions for success
• What do you think of our services? How
can we improve?
to
• What kind of services or supports would
you like us to deliver?
mindaustralia.org.au
Recognising what we didn’t know
• Service models prescribed by state\territory and federal
governments
• Collection of service models developed over past 20 years
• Relevance for future unknown
• Consumers in mental health not asked the question
– “if you have a choice, where would you like the funding
spent?”
mindaustralia.org.au
Prioritisation of 13 ‘good life’ domains
Research undertaken by Mind’s Research Collaboration with Melbourne
University “People making choices” (Brophy 2014)
15%
12%
68%
17%
Health
20%
Economic
Social connection
24%
Housing
61%
27%
Support Person
Personal life
Self
Passions and interests
29%
Recreation and leisure
59%
32%
37%
Family
Empowerment
Cultural
34%
Living skills
Figure 1: Percentage of people who said each goal would be
ranked in the top five good life goals
mindaustralia.org.au
Top 5 Good Life Goals
32%
Personal life
68%
Health
34%
Housing
37%
Support person
61%
Economic
59%
Social connection
Figure 2: Top ‘good life’ goals according to
participants’ prioritisation of each goal being in their
Top 5
mindaustralia.org.au
Recovery College: A new service
paradigm
• Offers an alternative to the ‘expert professional’ model
• Co-produced - activities and practices are derived from a
knowledge base that brings together ‘lived’ and ‘learned’
expertise
• Offers new ‘positions’ for service users, other than the
traditional professional-client dyad
• Draws on educational theory, combined with lived/learned
expertise in mental health
• Recovery is supported by the acquisition of skills and
knowledge, directed by the learner
mindaustralia.org.au
Implications for Mind
• Resources focus predominantly on employment of staff
• Reframing packages of care and ways in which public $ can
be used
• Implications for workforce flexibility
• Need to strengthen focus on barriers to accessing health,
housing, social support, employment and education
• Focus on people with mental ill-health’s learning and skill
development
• Strengthening focus on role of carers, family and friends
(decision making influencers in understanding and framing
service purchase patterns in the future)
mindaustralia.org.au
Reflections on new ways of doing
business
• Focus on population-based planning rather than funding
stream planning
• Packaging services and supports across organisations and
sectors – moving beyond “no wrong door” to more
integrated service solutions
• Providing a differentiated product in a market with
increasing pressure for standardisation – the race to the
top or the bottom
• Understanding the diversity of potential public and private
funding sources
• Sourcing capital and expertise for business development
• Starting to think about our contribution as SMEs in growing
corporatised market place:
•
•
Are the business models of today, the business models of the
future?
Defining our future rather than having it defined for us
mindaustralia.org.au