Recommendation 23

What the Royal Commission said

The Royal Commission recommended the Victorian Government establish a Mental Health Statewide Trauma Service by the end of 2022 to deliver the best possible mental health and wellbeing outcomes for people with lived experience of trauma.

The new Mental Health Statewide Trauma Service will:

• conduct trauma research
• support the mental health and wellbeing workforce to provide trauma-informed care
• create a digital peer-led support platform
• coordinate and facilitate access to trauma experts.

In the future, the service will be part of the new Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing.

What are the opportunities?

The Royal Commission highlighted that many mental health consumers experience trauma. It found the current system does not meet the mental health and recovery needs of consumers affected by trauma.

There is not enough early support for people affected by trauma. Instead, the focus is on helping people who are at crisis point. For some consumers, contact with the current mental health system has worsened the impacts of trauma.

The new Mental Health Statewide Trauma Service will enable more mental health services and workers to provide early support to people experiencing trauma.

Trauma-informed services foster a sense of safety and trust and recognise the importance of personal relationships. This will be a focus of the new system.

What are we doing?

In October 2022, a group of organisations led by Phoenix Australia was appointed to design and deliver the Mental Health Statewide Trauma Service.

The service has been re-named Transforming Trauma Victoria, with the following organisations leading its design and development:

• Phoenix Australia (lead consortium agency)
• Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA)
• Australian Psychological Society
• Mindful
• Foundation House - the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture
• Berry Street
• Orygen
• SANE
• Royal Women 's Hospital - Centre Against Sexual Assault (CASA House)
• Austin Health - Psychological Trauma Recovery Service, Mental Health Division
• The Bouverie Centre
• The Royal Melbourne Hospital - NorthWestern Mental Health
• Thorne Harbour Health

Trauma can have a significant impact on people 's mental health and wellbeing. Transforming Trauma Victoria is currently designing and developing this new and innovative service to provide the best possible outcomes for people with lived and living experience of trauma.

Read more about the new approach to addressing trauma on the Recommendation 24 page.