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Company: SANE Australia
Entry submitted by: Faruk Avdi (faruchidor) Director – Digital, Service Design & Technology
Community: SANE Forums (www.saneforums.org)
Lithy category: Excellence in Customer Satisfaction
SANE Australia is a leading mental health charity. It is devoted to helping all Australians affected by mental illness lead a better life -- through support, training, and education. SANE began its operations almost thirty years ago, and its award-winning information services and Helpline are highly regarded.
In 2014, our customer satisfaction initiatives were as follows:
The most important customer issues SANE Australia was looking to solve via its Lithium implementation were:
SANE Forums has been designed as a service, end-to-end, utilising user-centred design. User-centred service design helped SANE identify potential difficulties in discoverability of the service (with only a small budget for marketing).
This led to the design and eventual delivery of the partner-and-syndicate model referred to in Q1. This model allows individuals in the community to discover and participate in SANE Forums via a trusted context of an organisation they are already familiar with. This has extended the reach of SANE Forums to tens of thousands more individuals.
This partner-and-syndicate model has had many collateral benefits. Taken together they demonstrate a ‘gold-standard’ approach in the mental health sector:
SANE Forums is unique in Australia, providing the first non-diagnosis-specific, online peer-to-peer support service for people living with mental illness, and the first truly national and viable online peer-to-peer support service for families, friends and other carers.
‘I so truly love that I can honestly share a little of me here and be privileged to read and know of others stories. Thank you Sane and all the people here sharing. I feel a glimmer of understanding and connection in this forum that I have not felt before.’
- Member, Lived Experience Forum
‘ Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to let you know how helpful I have found the information posted here. My husband has major depression and has been receiving treatment in a clinic. This process was a stressful one for us both, including the time leading up to the hospital stay.
As a result of your input, I have found myself being far more assertive and proactive … and I have made contact with carer support organisations and have a couple of referrals in for programs for both myself and my husband.
Thankyou for helping me navigate a way through/ into the system!’
- Member, Carers Forum
SANE Forums was funded by the Australian Government, Department of Health and launched in August 2014. The service has exceeded all expectations and metrics set by the Department for visitation and usage. Within seven months of the launch and as at 21 March 2015, SANE Forums have had:
Registrations for the service have very steadily increased since launch. An initial seeding and testing pool of 300+ members helped launch a warm and welcoming service, vibrant with helpful discussion, from day one.
Member registrations per month
The service remains non-diagnostic in focus, and uniquely available to people experiences health issues across the full spectrum of mental health issues.
Content analysis in an Evaluation conducted on the service found a great diversity among members, with 29 different diagnoses discussed across the Carers and Lived Experience Forums.
Common non-diagnosis specific discussion themes include the following:
Issues |
|
Carers Forum |
% |
Coping with mental illness and symptoms of loved ones |
60% |
Navigating mental health systems |
45% |
Refusing treatment |
40% |
Relation breakdown/conflict |
40% |
Stress/worry/anxiety |
30% |
Lived Experience Forum |
% |
Symptoms |
63% |
Assessment/treatment |
40% |
Medication |
47% |
Relationships |
41% |
Stress/worry/anxiety |
26% |
Both communities are showing various signs of good and growing health, including a CHI score hovering between 500 and 550, and the vast majority of comments being posted by and in response to community members:
Member and moderator generated posts %
In terms of the primary purpose of the service, early indications look very promising. The highest-rated themes reported by respondents to the recent Evaluation survey were:
The fostering of these elements will assist in continual growth and participation of members and the overall sense of community.
Evaluation findings also show that mental health benefits are emerging. Increased mental health literacy and empowerment were highly rated across both communities.
Repeat visitors to the service average 25-30% per week. Average session durations on the forums averages above 10 minutes per session.
The Evaluation referred to above has many positive statistics indicating the service is becoming an important resource for people living with mental illness, and for families, friends and other carers in Australia.
To share some statistics from just one category, concerning ‘access to reliable information, advice and referral drawing on the vast experience and expertise of peers as well as that of experts in the field’, the Evaluation found:
These statistics show that the service is making a real difference in people’s lives.
This marks a turning point for online, peer-to-peer support services in Australia.
All of this has been made possible via the efforts of talented and caring people from Snaffle Web, Isobar, Persistent Systems and Lithium, and with Lithium's platform and ongoing generous support.
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