Independent evaluation team appointed to evaluate new National Early Intervention Service (NEIS) for mental health
The Australian Government’s new National Early Intervention Service (NEIS) is set to make low-intensity support easier to access for people living in Australia who need it. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (the Department) has recently released a Request for Tender (RFT) to select a service provider to deliver the NEIS. At the same time, a consortium of health services researchers across Monash University and the University of Melbourne have been appointed to independently evaluate the program during its early stages of implementation. The appointment of an evaluation team prior to the procurement of the service provider is uncommon but welcome, demonstrating the Government’s commitment to the program’s success.
In Australia, around 1-in-5 adults and 1-in-7 young people are impacted by a mental health disorder in a given year. Of these, around half will experience mild symptoms that require lower intensity forms of treatment.
The NEIS was announced in the 2024–25 Federal Budget to expand support for people at risk of or experiencing mild mental ill-health or transient distress. From 1 January 2026, the NEIS will offer low-intensity cognitive behavioural therapy delivered by trained professionals, via phone or video. The NEIS will also provide evidence-based resources. Services will be free and accessible without a diagnosis or referral from a GP. Once fully implemented, the service is expected to support over 150,000 people each year.
The evaluation team was awarded a $2.8 million (excl GST) contract to independently evaluate and report on the program’s success. This will make sure it is working effectively, help program leaders guide its evolution over time, and inform future policy design. Given that digital mental health provision is still relatively new in Australia, robust evaluation of the NEIS will ensure that it delivers what people in Australia need in a timely and appropriate manner, thereby building confidence in this model of care.
One of the co-leads of the evaluation team, Monash University’s Professor Cathy Mihalopoulos, believes an important element of the program is the ability for people to self-refer and be able to more easily access care that is more suited to their level of need. “Australians have needed a referral from a GP to access Medicare subsidised mental health support through programs such as Better Access and sometimes cannot easily access the appropriate care for their level of need. Our team will be keeping a close eye on how the process to engage with the NEIS works in practice, in terms of acceptability and the delivery of the right care at the right time.”
Australia is grappling with a national shortage of psychologists and psychiatrists. It is hoped that the flexibility of remotely delivered psychological therapies will help to address such shortages in the mental health workforce and enable those seeking help to connect into services matched to their level of need more readily.
The evaluation team, led by Professor Mihalopoulos at Monash and Dr Bridget Bassilios from the University of Melbourne, includes experienced program evaluators, quantitative and qualitative researchers, health economists and lived experience experts. This blend of expertise will ensure that a diverse range of measures will be used to gauge the success of the program, including measures that matter most to those seeking help.
“I applaud the Government for their decision to prioritise the program evaluation component,” says Professor Mihalopoulos. “It shows they are committed to evidence-based approaches that will drive the
successful rollout and evolution of this program and are thinking in the long-term, beyond the next election cycle.”
The evaluators will work collaboratively with the Department and the Treasury’s Australian Centre for Evaluation (ACE), providing findings and recommendations in the initial 3.5 years of the NEIS.
After an initial period developing an evaluation framework, strategy and questions, as well as informing the design of a dataset for administrative service use data, the evaluation team will conduct a process and outcome evaluation as well as explore the feasibility of conducting an impact evaluation using different methods and approaches. The team will issue regular reports to the Government over the course of the evaluation. A broad range of people will contribute data to the program, including operators, service providers, and people accessing the NEIS. They’ll provide their feedback via focus groups, interviews, surveys and other consultation methods.
Professor Mihalopoulos says, “I’m very excited about the advanced evaluation approaches we’ll be using to inform the development and roll-out of this program to ensure it is the best it can be for Australia.”
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