Consumers and carers as Health Care Navigators to increase physical health care screening checks and preventive care for people who access mental health services in rural Australia: A randomised implementation and effectiveness trial

This is a healthcare navigator intervention designed to facilitate access to health screening and health protective services for people with mental illness by addressing barriers such as low health literacy, psychosocial barriers or other health service access challenges. This is a non-drug trial focusing on behaviour, education, and healthcare navigation/utilisation/linkage. Duration of sessions is anticipated to be between 30 and 45 minutes. The default frequency of sessions will be weekly, The navigation intervention involves a minimum of four (4) sessions with someone acting in a navigator role. There are three navigator types: (1) peer/lived experience worker, (2) carer lived experience worker, (3) mental health professional. The sessions can be delivered in-person, online or over the phone as preferred by participants. They conduct an initial 'health needs' assessment using the Neami Health Prompt (equallywell.org.au/neami-health-prompt/), then support participants to access services designed to prevent, screen, diagnose, treat and manage chronic health conditions as appropriate. The navigators work as part of a multi-disciplinary community mental health team. Their role is to help identify health screening needs, and support navigation to access the health screening and health protective services the participants wish to access. Their expertise is in service navigation. All health or mental health related clinical decisions are made by the mental health team or the physical health professional accessed (eg GP). Training and support Navigator training is provided by the research project Research Assistant. It is mixed mode online training, for 2 and a half days a week for a 4-week period prior to the recruitment of the first participants. Each week is a self-contained learning module. Each module/component is designed to take 2 and a half days (18.75 hours). This equates to a total of 75 hours of training equally spread across 4 weeks (18.75 hours each week). The learning environment combines live videoconference sessions, interspersed with a set syllabus of learning activities in an online environment. The learning outcomes are shared with the Research Assistant at weekly (60-90 minute) follow-up sessions. In addition, there are fortnightly supervision sessions, in the form a project Community of Practice Meeting, These sessions will take between 60 and 90 minutes. These Community of Practice Meetings are scheduled throughout the duration of the trial, where ongoing supervision is provided and if necessary additional training and support provided, This is supplemented by 1 to 1 support and supervision with the research assistant as may be required. Program fidelity is monitored through inspection of the navigation logs, and through practice reflection in the Community of Practice Sessions