Introduction

Creating an environment for healthcare encounters where people are supported to receive the information and care that they need to participate in decisions about their health, requires a focus on the physical surroundings, and the organizational structures and systems. For organizations to respond to the needs of people with lived experience of mental health issues, that is, to be mental health literacy responsive, their services, programs, support and information need to be provided in ways that promote equitable access and engagement, and meet the diverse mental health literacy strengths, limitations and preferences of all people. What organizations look like, feel like and do to be mental health literacy responsive needs to be defined by people with lived experience.

Methods

The Ophelia (Optimising Health Literacy and Access) process was applied to collaborate with people with lived experience and develop mental health literacy profiles. These profiles were presented as vignettes in online workshops held with people with lived experience and service providers to generate ideas about ways organizations can be mental health literacy responsive.

Results

The ideas from the workshops were thematically analysed and eleven action areas to build health system responsiveness were identified. These action areas have informed the development of training, education and resources to assist organizations to build their mental health literacy responsiveness. A tool to support quality improvement based on the eleven action areas has been co-designed with Primary Health Networks. The tool includes: a description of the key characteristics of each action area; helpful hints and examples; a discussion guide to explore the alignment between each action area and local needs and priorities; a self-assessment process; and a quality improvement action plan.

Lessons learned

Unlike other organizational health literacy approaches that define organizational qualities, this tool describes health service provider capabilities and practices, as well as service organization, capacity and integration. This quality improvement tool is a useful mechanism for improving mental health literacy responsiveness as it clearly specifies the actions required by people within organizations. The inherent systems-focus facilitates inter-organizational ways of working to support system-wide improvements across local regions.