The Bush Telegraph is a LBI-led community mental health program that empowers regional communities to come together in ‘shared intent’, and deliver mental health and wellbeing outcomes tailored to every layer of the community.
Thriving children, young people & adults
IMPACT builds the awareness, skills and resilient mindsets needed to strengthen:
Wellbeing, resilience and social-emotional learning (SEL)
Self-awareness
Capacity to navigate complexity
Ability to respond rather than react to stressors
Living with intention and values alignment
Problem-solving and goal-setting
Achieving what truly matters
Building positive relationships
Making a meaningful and lasting impact
Responsive care and relational support
IMPACT builds the shared language, knowledge, skills and methods to:
Deliver trauma-informed, wellbeing-responsive care and support as a way of thinking and being
Provide neuro-affirming, developmentally-responsive care
Understand human complexity and the underlying why of behaviour
Respond to client (child, youth and adult) needs rather than react to surface behaviours
Intentionally grow client wellbeing capacity in a personalised way
Offer intentional, moment-to-moment support, teaching and coaching conversations
Use side-by-side What–What–How® Growth Action Planning
Work side-by-side with all community members with shared intent
Wellbeing and trauma responsive communities
IMPACT offers a common meta-cognitive competency system and flexible service suite to:
Grow individual and collective thriving, wellbeing and resilience
Build wellbeing- and trauma-responsive care communities
Embed shared language, knowledge, skills, and methods to strengthen existing community mental health and wellbeing initiatives
Provide a systemic method to intentionally respond to individual and collective complexity
Deliver a shared evidence-based practice culture
Break down interagency silos and build a culture of shared intent
Why are Regional Communities Drawn to The Bush Telegraph?
Responding to Complex Mental Health Challenges With Intent
- IMPACT helps communities understand the why behind mental health, behavioural and wellbeing challenges. It equips regional communities with practical, trauma-informed tools that meet each person’s unique needs—whether shaped by trauma, neurodivergence or ongoing life stressors. This moves practice from reacting to behaviour toward responding with empathy, awareness and purpose. Importantly, IMPACT recognises that there are no quick fixes for complex issues like mental health, family violence or chronic stress—real change comes from sustained, intentional action across the whole community. This shifts practice from reacting to behaviour toward responding with awareness and intent.
Building Sustainable and Locally Led Communities of Practice
- Regional communities are looking for sustainability. This means the capacity building work continues to grow and adapt long after a program, facilitator or workshop ends. The Bush Telegraph achieves this by equipping local people—those already embedded and influential in their communities—with the tools, knowledge and confidence to lead ongoing change and growth.
Strengthening Collaboration and Shared Intent Across Services
- Across many regions, agencies and individuals are doing great work—but often in silos. IMPACT helps break down these barriers by fostering shared intent and collaboration between people, services and sectors. It creates practical ways for organisations to connect their efforts, align goals and build collective responses to complex community challenges. This unified approach strengthens outcomes, enhances wellbeing and reduces the strain that often leads to burnout. This work is founded upon the community being empowered with the shared language, knowledge, skills and methods to solve their own problems.
What is The Bush Telegraph?
Why is it Called The Bush Telegraph?
The Bush Telegraph empowers local community members—those already connected within the “bush”—with a shared language, knowledge, skills and methods to telegraph the science of wellbeing, growth, and trauma in ways that make a real difference in their own communities.
Intent: Building Wellbeing and Trauma-Responsive Communities
A key pillar to improving mental health outcomes are community owned and led wellbeing solutions. In other words:
Intentionally delivered programs, responses, strategies or interventions that help people get back on their feet when life has got on top of them, and to prevent and stop people getting there the first place.
This approach embraces complexity in understanding the individual factors driving mental health outcomes in a regional community and brings focus to local and culturally sensitive solutions.
A wellbeing and trauma responsive regional community is when community members, teams and agencies:
- Have a detailed understanding of the science of wellbeing, trauma, growth and human development, as made practical for individual and collective community members.
- Can intentionally respond (rather than react) to the individual growth, trauma, developmental and mental health needs of community members.
- Can intentionally build the capacity (including awareness, skills and mindsets) of all community members for thriving outcomes.
- Are empowered to work side-by-side together with shared intent and can co-construct shared wellbeing and growth solutions (Growth Action Plans) that respond to the specific mental health and wellbeing needs of individual and collective community members.
In other words, integration, collaboration, shared intent and empowerment are the drivers of growth and change within a regional community.
Four Features
The Bush Telegraph is founded upon the following four features:
Foundational IMPACT Training, Community Champions, Community Conversations and Wellbeing Projects.
The foundational IMPACT training provides shared language, methods, tools and resources to enable the science of wellbeing, growth and trauma to be translated and personalised to individual context, in a manner that honours the strengths and knowledge of individual and community.
These IMPACT trained, coached and accredited community members have access to ongoing coaching and resources to empower their communities.
Interagency workshops to build a shared intent and collaboration.
Community Champions support and empower local schools, agencies, groups and teams to deliver projects that translate the science of wellbeing to community needs and context, drawing upon IMPACT Program resources, tools, modules and strategies.
Partners
The Bush Telegraph is a LBI Foundation program that brings together both ‘Program Partners’ (e.g., agency, school, council) and ‘Community Funders’ through a shared commitment to improve local mental health and wellbeing outcomes.
Program Partners
Program Partners are agencies, non-government organisations, schools or community groups which are committed to energising and empowering their communities to build whole-of-community wellbeing and mental health outcomes. The Bush Telegraph draws upon the strengths of both LBI Foundation and ‘Program Partner’. LBI Foundation offers a suite of best-practice tools, methods and resources to translate the science of wellbeing, growth and resilience into action, and the ‘Program Partner’ is the face of local community engagement and knowledge translation.
Community Funders
Community Funders are agencies, councils, corporate entities, philanthropic groups and government departments who want to support the building of wellbeing-and-trauma responsive local communities. If you are interested in learning more, please download this invitation.
Community Impact
Partners
Community Case Studies
Research and Evaluation
Most Significant Change Evaluation of The Bush Telegraph
In 2021, CQU conducted the Most Significant Change evaluation of The Bush Telegraph (Ceduna, Whyalla & Port Lincoln).
Independent Review of The Bush Telegraph (Port Lincoln)
In 2022, CQU conducted an independent review of The Bush Telegraph as delivered across Port Lincoln.
Further Information
If you are interested in learning how The Bush Telegraph can deliver meaningful mental health and wellbeing outcomes across your community, please email info@lbi.org.au.