Co-Designing Wellbeing Initiatives With Rural Adolescents: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why

Rural Australian youth face persistent mental health inequities yet are rarely meaningfully involved in designing the services meant to support them. This study aimed to explore through co-design what rural young people need and want in their community to support their mental health and wellbeing, with a secondary aim of evaluating the co-design process itself.

Three co-design workshops were conducted with 20 participants (13 young people aged 12-17 years and seven adults) in Kimba, South Australia, using the Double Diamond design framework and PRODUCES co-production principles. Workshops followed a Discover-Define-Develop-Deliver progression. Qualitative content analysis of workshop outputs and focus group data informed findings, alongside descriptive analysis of post-workshop feedback surveys. Study findings were subsequently interpreted through the PROSECO process evaluation framework, applied retrospectively.

Co-designers prioritised practical, occupation-based wellbeing activities, ultimately prototyping a Basic Car Maintenance Workshop and a community Colour Fun Run. Most participants reported feeling able to contribute (72%) and that the process was helpful (96%). Five themes emerged from the process evaluation: factors influencing engagement, experiences of the co-design process, workshop environment and participation, impact and continuation, and voice and inclusion.

Flexible, context-sensitive facilitation, anonymous contribution methods, and deliberate management of group dynamics were critical enablers of meaningful youth participation in this rural setting. SO WHAT?: Practical, occupation-based activities co-designed with rural youth can serve as accessible preventative mental health interventions. Embedding structured co-design evaluation frameworks prospectively would strengthen future practice and replication.