Co-design in preventive mental health research

Project Details

This project focuses on the role of co-design in mental health prevention, specifically with young people, an area that has been underexplored in research and policy. Co-design involves actively involving individuals with lived experience in designing services or interventions. While this approach has been widely used in mental health services, its application in prevention research - aimed at reducing the risk of mental health issues before they occur - remains limited.

The project aims to fill this gap by exploring how co-design can be effectively applied in mental health prevention research and policy, particularly with young people aged 16-24 years. It includes a realist review of literature on co-design in prevention, alongside workshops with young people and questionnaires with non-youth stakeholders in Australia and internationally. The goal is to better understand the opportunities, benefits, and challenges of using co-design in efforts to prevent mental ill-health and improve the wellbeing of young people.

Researchers

Dr Lakshmi Neelakantan (Project Lead)
lakshmi.neelakantan@unimelb.edu.au
+61 3 8344 9930

Funding

ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research Translation’s Next Generation Researcher Seed Funding