Case Studies

Review of an Aboriginal Medical Service Dental Program

Peter Lindsay — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 06:54:37 +1000

This Dental Program had suffered serious disruption with the loss of senior staff.

The review identified service and capacity gaps, internal support process requirements and external opportunities for collaboration which created a clearer direction for the program.

At the end of the day these were subtle changes that will lead to significantly improved outcomes for their clients. Building on the existing good relationship between this and the mainstream service will enable enhanced outcomes within the framework of the existing resource base.

Additional strategies were also required to top up management skills through internal mentoring and support structures, and to assist with recruitment to replace existing staff vacancies.

Action Planning for a Large & Complex Aboriginal Medical Service

Peter Lindsay — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 07:17:55 +1000

Under new funding guidelines the Commonwealth Office of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health (OATSIH) required program based Action Plans for each funded program within this large and complex service. To simplify planning across the organisation it was negotiated that these plans would also meet State planning and reporting requirements.

The organisation also saw this as an opportunity to enhance activity through effective service planning.

The process require:

meeting with the coordinators of approximately 30 programs
identifying key program objectives and action processes
drafting Action Plans including performance indicators
reviewing these plans with the program coordinators
meeting with Executive staff to identify organisation wide gaps and opportunities
finalising Action Plans

These had to be completed within an extremely tight time frame in order to meet deadlines for the new funding round.

Aged Care Achievements

Allison Davidson — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 15:01:53 +1000

Some examples of aged care achievements include:

Securing a total of 270 residetial bed approvals in the 2006 and 2005 Aged Care Approvals Rounds including

enough beds in the 2006 Round for a new facility in South West Rocks, NSW

100% of beds applied for in 3 Queensland facilities in the 2005 Round

Developing the cutting edge Aged Coordinated Care Project.
Securing the largest single funding grant for the development of a Regional Aged Care Strategic Plan.
Facilitating consultations for enhancing existing aged care facilities and for the development of new facilities.

Mid North Coast (NSW) Aged Coordinated Care Project

Allison Davidson — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 16:20:23 +1000

This was one of the original Round 1 Coordinated Care Proposals. Peter Lindsay project managed the intensive research and development phase.

In a 10 month period this went from being a trial that no-one believed would go live, to one of the preferred models. The research phase involved identifying and consenting over 400 aged people with complex care needs, and exploring their health and community care service utilisation. From this a funding and care delivery model was developed. The funding model later proved to be reasonably predictive of behaviour and cost.

This project led to the development and implementation of the Aged Care Transitional Intervention Project (ACTIP) for people with complex conditions moving between hospital and home. The processes developed in this project were later mainstreamed in aged care service delivery.

Many Rivers Aboriginal Medical Service Health Alliance

Peter Lindsay — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 07:35:19 +1000

Partnerships between Aboriginal Medical Services and mainstream health providers are essential in order that communities recieve the best possible access to health care.

The restructure of Area Health Services in NSW lead to the development of large operational regions, each including a number of Aboriginal Medical Services. This created the potential for a complex array of agreements.

ACHIEVE was invited to facilitate the agreement processes on the north coast of NSW. This lead to a simplified two stage agreement. The first between the various Aboriginal Medical Services forming the Many Rivers Aboriginal Medical Service Health Alliance, and the second between the Alliance and the North Coast Area Health Service.

After Hours Medical Service

Allison Davidson — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 16:17:19 +1000

This project was developed in a small coastal community. It was overseen by a Steering Committee including independent GPs, the Division of General Practice, the Area Health Service, the Ambulance service, local providers such as the Pharmacist, local community service agencies, and the host agency - a local aged care facility.

As Project Manager, ACHIEVE built bridges between all stakeholders to establish an innovative model for a community based after hours medical service in a small regional community. This included facilitating a process with GPs, the Area Health Service to determine agreed protocols for telephone and face to face nurse triage.

AMS Annual Reports

Peter Lindsay — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 12:35:44 +1000

Our interest in Annual Reports is from a service and organisational development perspective. This particular Aboriginal Medical Service is a large and complex organisation.They needed an annual report that gave a much clearer picture of their activities and achievements.

We collated the information from each of the 30 programs, conducted a brief interview of the key program staff and prepared a summarised version of the activities of each program.

The process enabled the identification of gaps in service needs, and the priorities for additional resources.

The reports have become important marketting tools andwe have now been asked back to complete four reports.

Indigenous Child Care Location Options Project

Peter Lindsay — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 11:52:59 +1000

There was a need to rebuild an Indigenous Child Care Facility after it had been destroyed by fire. The old site was no longer suitable and the community had not been able to decideÂ which of the possible options to use.

ACHIEVE facilitated a process including extensive consultation which:

developed criteria for selection,
identified the full range of options,
assessed each option against the criteria, and
developed a short list of suitable sites with recommendations to the Working Party.

Regional Aged Care Strategic Plan

Peter Lindsay — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 12:03:15 +1000

Our extensive involvement in aged care, particularly through the Mid North Coast Aged Coordinated Care Project, highlighted the need for enhanced service options for the aged on the Mid North Coast of NSW. Development was ad hoc and there was a clear shortage of residential and community based care. After discussing this with various agencies we identified the need for a Regional Aged Care Strategic Plan. Extensive consultation and lobbying followed and ACHIEVE then prepared a submission through a sponsoring agency to secure funding for the planning process.

The result was the largest grant of its kind being awarded to the community through the sponsoring agency, and the subsequent development of a Regional Aged Care Strategic Plan.

Partnership in Aboriginal Care

Allison Davidson — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 16:21:35 +1000

As Project Manager for the Submission Development Stage, ACHIEVE was instrumental in securing a $36M funding agreement involving commonwealth, state and Indigenous health agencies to establish the largest coordinated care project (at that time) in Australia.

This 12 month development stage involved: