What is ‘co-design’?

Co-design is the meaningful engagement of end-users in the design process. It can range in intensity from relatively passive to highly active and involved (Slattery et al., 2020).

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Oqea and co-design

At Oqea, we’re committed to developing a platform and experience that meets (and exceeds) the needs of the people that use it. These people can be those that are working to improve their mental fitness (and the families/friends that support them, who can follow and support their journey digitally through the Oqea app), as well as the providers and organisations that provide services within Oqea (ranging from Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Wellbeing Coaches and Allied Health professionals, to Yoga instructors, financial planners, or community organisations - because we recognise that the contributors to challenges with mental health are multifactorial, so our provider options reflect that).

Oqea’s co-design principals are:

• Inclusive and respectful - All participants are seen as experts and their input is valued and has equal standing.

• Participative - Open, empathetic, responsive, and collaborative with collective ownership.

• Iterative - Allow for mistakes and continually discuss solutions.

• Outcomes focused - Productively working towards improving the mental health of everyone, everywhere... together.

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Formalising the process

Best practice for the development of digital solutions is to co-design them with the end-users (Eyles et al., 2016; Noorbergen et al., 2021; Slattery et al., 2020). While we’ve always had a strong focus on working with our members and providers (we were founded by 5 psychiatrists and a mental health nurse after all), we’ve now formalised the co-design process by recruiting a group of passionate people with a lived experience to join our ‘co-design contingent’. This paid role sees them participate in several co-design activities throughout the year, ranging from focus groups, prioritising new features and functions within Oqea, to testing them and providing feedback.

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Measuring co-design success

We’ve run multiple co-design activities so far this year and have many more planned, with members, providers, and with both together. A key measure of success is engagement (both the number of people participating and the extent of their contribution) (Marney & Elderton, 2021). Our co-design contingent is currently made up of 30 people from across Australia (20 members, 10 providers). Recent co-design activities have seen engagement of between 5-10 people with lots of healthy discussions.

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Outcomes:

From our sessions so far, our co-design activities identified the following problems with the current healthcare system:

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Problems identified

- Waitlists to see mental health professionals

- Costs to see mental health professionals

- Lack of communication between providers, organisations, and supporters (for example family and friends)

- Lack of the promotion of holistic care (i.e. healthy lifestyles, non-pharmacological interventions)

Potential Solutions

The Oqea platform already provides many solutions to the problems identified, but we’re always working at improving further. By providing a collaborative, person-centred platform that empowers people to understand and take control of their wellbeing journey, we’re trying to solve many of the problems highlighted by the co-design contingent as well as many recent reports and research papers

The co-design activates also identified four ‘quick wins’ to improve the Oqea platform, two process/functional re-designs, and two new feature suggestions. Importantly, all our members felt comfortable and thought the session was productive as indicated by our anonymous post-activity survey. Some quotes from the participants below:

“I really enjoyed it. It was a lot more relaxed than I thought it would be, and I felt very comfortable” – Co-design participant

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“Great participation and well facilitated!!! I already look forward to the next one” – Co-design participant

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Payment

We recognise and value the expertise and time our co-design contingent gives. Therefore, we pay for their time based on the amount paid by other organisations for similar engagement activities. Some of our co-design contingent preferred Oqea to donate this money to a charity of their choice, or to volunteer, so we’ve provided this as an option as well.

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Want to get involved?

If you’re a member or a provider, or just want to get involved, please contact me via kevin@oqea.com to find out more or join Oqea’s co-design contingent.

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References:

Eyles, H., Jull, A., Dobson, R., Firestone, R., Whittaker, R., Te Morenga, L., . . . Mhurchu, C. N. (2016). Co-design of mHealth Delivered Interventions: A Systematic Review to Assess Key Methods and Processes. Current Nutrition Reports, 5(3), 160-167. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-016-0165-7

Marney, T., & Elderton, K. (2021). Five factors to consider when doing co-design in mental health. Nous. https://www.nousgroup.com/insights/co-design-mental-health

Noorbergen, T. J., Marc, T. P. A., Roxburgh, M., & Teubner, T. (2021). Co-design in mHealth Systems Development: Insights From a Systematic Literature Review. AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interactions, 13(2), 175-205. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.17705/1thci.00147

Slattery, P., Saeri, A. K., & Bragge, P. (2020). Research co-design in health: a rapid overview of reviews. Health Research Policy and Systems, 18(1), 17. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-020-0528-9

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