The board has been tight-lipped about the project, saying it is at an early stage.
A Dunedin community mental health manager, who declined to be named, said the cash-strapped board was trying to ''have their cake and eat it'', as it also wanted to cut funding for providers.
The board, which faces a projected deficit of $42 million next year, has told contracted providers it has to cut 5% from contracts.
''They want all this, but they don't want to pay for it,'' the manager said.
Resourced properly, the shift would be positive for community-based providers and long-term mental health inpatients, the manager said.
The manager said the board vowed to shift services to the community in its ''Raise Hope'' mental health plan in 2012, which was overdue for implementation.
Pact chief executive Louise Carr was more optimistic when contacted, saying she believed the budget cut was an interim measure, and was separate from the Wakari review.
She hoped the project would give effect to the Raise Hope plan aims of shifting services into the community, she said.
''It's what we've been advocating for a long time - that mental health care can take place in the community.''
Pact is a Dunedin-based organisation that supports people with mental illness and intellectual disability.
In a prepared statement, planning and funding director Sandra Boardman said the board was in the early stage of planning the project.
It would take months, had no confirmed time frame and would involve staff consultation.
The project would ''develop and implement a strengthened model for adult community-based rehabilitation services with a focus on supporting more people in the community with needs''.
''The process will incorporate sector-wide input and feedback in the development of the draft service delivery model.''
The project is understood to focus mainly on ward 11, but the board said a ''range of current inpatient, outpatient and community adult mental health rehabilitation services will be considered''.
The board's website says ward 11 is for patients requiring ''a further period of stabilisation beyond their stay in an admission ward''.
