The Lighthouse Project: A Nurse Led Co-Design Online Educational Strategy for Supporters of Rural and Regional Children with Unmet Mental Health Needs in Australia

Children with unmet mental health needs from regional and rural settings experience compromised service access. A lack of skilled workforce is a key driver of this problem. This Australian-based two-phase mental health nurse led study aimed to co-design, develop and then trial the helpfulness of a six-week capability development training called the Lighthouse Project for supporters of rural children experiencing mental health challenges. Phase One of the study involved a co-design focus group of stakeholders (N = 20) with Phase Two being qualitative survey responses from supporter participants. Phase One group data confirmed lived experiences of restricted service access to mental health services. Core content and enabling mechanisms for the training to help mitigate that challenge were subsequently developed. Phase Two data (N = 79) reported four themes: (1) New knowledge and attitudes, (2) Practical application of learning, (3) Positive participant subjective experiences, and (4) Mechanisms supporting or hindering outcomes. Co-designed online capability training enables effective role shifting of introductory yet specialised child mental health interventions to rural parents, carers and other supporters. Mental health nurses can undertake key roles in delivering primary mental health interventions such as the Lighthouse project in the context of diminishing practice roles outside of tertiary mental health settings. This study was conducted under a small rural mental health grant from the Peregrine Centre.