Community voices and co-design

Conversations on the Couch: listening where people are 

Sometimes the best way to understand a community is simply to sit down and listen. 

Through Conversations on the Couch, MPHN creates informal opportunities for people to share what healthcare is really like where they live. There is no set agenda: conversations take place in cafes, Men’s Sheds, community events and other familiar settings, allowing people to talk about what matters to them. 

“It’s about hearing directly from the people at the heart of our work,” MPHN Community Engagement Coordinator Thomas Parker said. “It’s about hearing their stories and what they’re going through on the ground.”  

In 2025-2026, MPHN deliberately broadened its approach, connecting with Men’s Sheds, young people during Youth Week and rural farming communities. Yarns on the Couch extended this approach to First Nations communities, creating culturally safe opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to share their experiences and priorities. 

Across the region, people spoke about GP access, transport, mental health, aged care and cost-of-living pressures, but also about strong community connections and services working well.  

In Barham, one resident described their daily café catch-up as a “therapy session”, while others spoke of “great community spirit” and feeling “lucky for what we have”.  

Those insights add lived experience to MPHN’s quantitative data, helping confirm what the data is showing, identify emerging issues and build a richer understanding of what communities need.  

“Every town is different and everyone’s circumstances are different,” said Mr Parker. “Conversations on the Couch provides us with a unique opportunity to gain real-world, real-time insights that we can’t get through other means.”