Sustaining an Aboriginal mental health service partnership

The Regional Aboriginal Integrated Social and Emotional (RAISE) Wellbeing program commenced in February 2003 as an Aboriginal mental health service partnership between one Aboriginal health service and three mainstream services: a community mental health team, a hospital mental health liaison, and an outback community counselling service. As case study method is used to describe the drivers (incentives for program development), linkage processes (structures and activities through which the partnership operated) and sustainability of the program. Program drivers were longstanding problems with Aboriginal peoples' access to mental health care, policy direction favouring shared service responsibility, and a relatively small amount of new funding for mental health that allowed the program to commence. Linkage processes were the important personal relationships between key individuals. The program's sustainabilitity is discussed.