Peel Mental Health Taskforce
The Peel Mental Health Taskforce brings a renewed focus on mental health service delivery to consumers living in the local government areas of Mandurah, Murray and Waroona.
The taskforce is committed to removing access barriers to mental health services and improving the patient journey of mental health consumers living in the Peel region.
Established late 2021, the taskforce is focused on delivering strategies and projects that reduce mental health service duplication, increase collaboration and improve patient journeys.
The target group is the youth population aged 12 to 25 years.
Membership
The taskforce comprises high level representation from organisations, including:
- South Metropolitan Health Service
- Mental Health Commission
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services
- WA Primary Health Alliance
- WA Police
- Department of Education
- Department of Communities
- Peel Development Commission
- Peel Health Campus
- mental health service providers, including Aboriginal representatives
- consumers and carers with lived experience.
The taskforce has authority to take action and bring together resources to achieve results and is an avenue for interagency communication, collaboration and joint-decision-making.
The taskforce is informed by three consultation sub-groups:
- Services engagement
- Aboriginal health workers
- Consumer and carer representatives
The partnership approach involves representatives from over 60 agencies, with communications shared regularly and input on various initiatives sought.
Wandjoo Gateway
Under the governance of the Peel Mental Health Taskforce, the Wandjoo Gateway ‘no wrong door’ approach was developed and successfully piloted in early 2024. This approach seeks to support and advise workers when referring and navigating young people aged 12 to 25 years with mental health concerns. Wandjoo means ‘welcome’ in Noongar, Bindjareb spelling.
The program aims to streamline earlier access to mental health, alcohol and other drugs, and psychosocial support services to meet the individual needs of young people. The model promotes an integrated system, multi-agency collaboration and continuum of care while keeping the young person engaged and empowered using specifically designed tools and resources.
A ‘no wrong door’ approach aims to remove exclusion criteria to enter the mental health system. If a presenting client is not appropriate for a particular service, they are held by that service and helped to navigate the system to find the right service for their needs, with a warm handover once accepted.
The program has been implemented in 10 local high schools, ensuring a consistent framework across the education sector. The approach ensures applicability across various sectors in the Peel region that support or interface with young people. The taskforce program team has also trained workers across the mental health and community sectors, including several general practitioners.
Contact us
For further information on the progress of the Peel Mental Health Taskforce and Wandjoo Gateway program, please email Peel Mental Health Taskforce.