Abstract
Mental health conditions are one of the largest cause of disability in Australia. The burden of mental health conditions is increasing, with around 1 in 4 people with mental illness having more than one disorder. Increases are also due to the growing prevalence in chronic conditions and ageing population. Mental health conditions have substantial impact at personal, social and economic levels – with the highest impact during late teens to early adult years, the period when people are usually establishing families and independent working lives. Mental illness is also most prevalent among those with lower socioeconomic status (SES), Indigenous communities and individuals with permanent disabilities.
Social, community and group-based participation are found to improve cognitive functioning, self-esteem, reduce depression and anxiety. Global studies have shown that social and community participation have direct association with mental health and wellbeing. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of Australians who reported mental health impact has increased compared to pre-pandemic period.
In early 2018, the Health and Technology Advisory Group (HTAG) developed Capacity Building Programs to increase social and community participation through mentor supported groups in real-world community settings – to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals with permanent disability living in the community. Around mid-2018, capacity building supports to increase social and community participation was formalised by the Australian Government National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). During the COVID pandemic, the NDIS extended their funding supports to include non face-to-face (virtual / online).
The HTAG Capacity Building Programs' preliminary results show functional improvements for the individual disability participants who received either face-to-face or non face-to-face supports. Despite limitations with physical participation when group activities were offered online – many expressed that virtual group supports were helpful as they were still able to “stay connected”, particularly when little or no other supports and/or activities were available. Overall, group-based community participation when provided either face-to-face or online was observed to have positive effects. Timely delivery of COVID information and government updates as part of the group-based programs was found to be useful during the lockdowns, particularly for individuals with disabilities in better understanding the health impact on ‘at-risk’ groups.
Some of the major challenges experienced by the disability community that was further highlighted during the COVID period included: limited health literacy, limited accessibility to digital technology, limited or lack of digital literacy, lack of funding for digital training including support for carers and limited integration of digital health systems available in the primary health care and community settings.