Join the MOST-NEXUS Lived Experience Co-Design Group

Orygen is a non-government organisation that delivers research, policy development, innovative clinical services, and evidence-based training and education for the mental health workforce to ensure that there is continuous improvement in the treatments and care provided to young people experiencing mental ill-health.  

Orygen Digital is the digital mental health division of Orygen. We’re always working to create new and better technology that genuinely helps young people who’ve struggled with their mental health to feel better and build the lives they want. We have a team of researchers, software engineers, psychologists, designers, artists and peer specialists who work together to develop these digital tool. Click here to learn more about Orygen Digital.

Lived experience participation means working in partnership with people who have personal experiences of mental health challenges and/or supporting a close friend or family member experiencing mental health challenges. We recognise that lived experience brings important knowledge and expertise that can help us make better decisions about services, research and technology we develop for young people. 

At Orygen Digital, we involve young people with lived experience in shaping our work, not just giving feedback once something has already been decided. This can include joining advisory and co-design groups, helping shape research, contributing to decisions about our digital services, and working alongside researchers, designers, clinicians and other staff. 

For MOST-Nexus, this means involving young people from the beginning and giving the lived experience co-design group meaningful opportunities to influence the design and important decisions during the project.

We’re inviting you to apply to join the MOST-Nexus lived experience co-design group. The group will work alongside lived experience practitioners, researchers, designers and technology experts to help design a new AI-based recommender system for MOST. 

The recommender system will be designed to help young people find therapy content that is more personalised to their needs and preferences. There are still lots of decisions to make about how the system should work. As a co-design group member, you’ll help us explore and make decisions about things like what makes a recommendation helpful, what information the system should use, how much choice and control young people should have, and how we can make the system safe and transparent. 

If you take part we will ask you to participate in up to eight online group co-design workshops.  You may also be invited to take part in 1-2 individual usability testing sessions (where you can try out early designs or prototypes), and an individual feedback interview at the end of the co-design. 

You don’t need previous experience with co-design, AI or technology. We’ll provide information and support throughout the project so everyone can participate. 

By taking part, you’ll have the opportunity to directly influence how a new AI-based feature in MOST is designed. You’ll work alongside other young people and the project team to explore real design decisions about personalisation, choice and privacy. You’ll also learn more about co-design in digital mental health and AI. Your contribution may hellp improve how young people experience MOST in the future. 

We understand that people’s circumstances can change. Because this is a series of connected workshops, we ask applicants to consider whether they can attend most sessions before applying. If your circumstances change during the project, please talk to the team and we’ll work through the options with you. 

Once you stop taking part, we will not collect any more information about you, but we will keep the information we have collected about you unless you ask us not to. 

All interested applicants are encouraged to apply and are given the opportunity to share any availability or unavailability with the team if successful. 

No! You do not need any experience or qualifications to apply for this role. We value life experience, different perspectives, curiosity and willingness to work with others. Diversity of life experiences is an important part of having a co-design project that can better represent young people across Australia. 

Once applications are submitted, the Orygen Digital Lived Experience Team will consider all applications. We will invite a shortlisted group of applicants to a brief phone call so we can learn a little more about them, answer questions and check that the opportunity is a good fit. We expect the recruitment process for the group to take 3-4 weeks from the date applications close. Everyone who applies will hear back from us about the outcome of their application. 

All successful applicants will need to complete a National Police Check and Working with Children’s Check if they are successful. However, you do not need to obtain any of these before you apply. The Lived Experience Participation Team will help you with this process.   

Any fees associated with these checks will be covered by Orygen or reimbursed.  

Certainly! MOST users are very welcome to apply.  

While the Lived Experience Participation Team will provide wellbeing support as it relates to your role as a lived experience co-design group member, we cannot offer ongoing mental health support. We encourage members to access mental health supports independently as feels right for them. 

We will only use the information you provide to assess eligibility, select a diverse co-design group, and contact you about your application. The form with your details will be kept secure and will not be shared beyond the Orygen Digital team who are handling the recruitment process.