Year: 2007

Staff: Kirsten Moore, Amanda Bingham

Summary: In 2000, NARI worked with Local Governments in the Western Metropolitan Region to develop a Priority of Access Tool (POA) for Local Government home-based Home and Community Care services. The POA was aligned with items on the Victorian Service Coordination Tool Templates (SCTT). The POA was well received and requests from other regions and Local Governments across Victoria requested training in use of the tool for their service. Over the past 7 years it has undergone modifications and was up to version 3 (POA3). In 2006 the SCTT were modified, making the POA3 no longer compatible. In mid 2007 eight Local Governments in the Western and Eastern Metropolitan Regions approached NARI and contributed funds for the development of POA4 to align with the latest SCTT. POA4 was completed in October 2007 and was found to match with clinical judgements of assessors in 91% of assessments.

Funding source: Local Governments in Brimbank, Manningham, Maribyrnong, Melbourne, Melton, Monash, Moonee Valley and Wyndham

The revised POA4 can be downloaded here ....

Guidelines for using POA4 can be downloaded here ....

Year: 2005-06 (current)

Staff: Briony Dow, Betty Haralambous

Summary: Villa Maria provides a range of aged, disability and community services to older people, people with disabilities and their carers in Victoria. This study is focused on Villa Maria's Eastern Community Services. Villa Maria is aware that many people who need assistance require support from a number of programs. This agency has recognised that, older people, people with disabilities and their carers are often confused and distressed about where their care is coming from, who their main contact is and they often need to repeat information to service providers over and over.

Villa Maria is committed to ensuring that people receiving services from various programs do not have these experiences. To address this issue, Villa Maria staff agreed to change the way they are providing services to older people, people with disabilities and their carers, by bringing all their programs together and focus on the individual's needs instead of providing services based on programs. In 2005, Villa Maria changed the name of its Eastern Community Services to the Partners and Pathways model to reflect this change. Villa Maria has engaged the National Ageing Research Institute to evaluate the Villa Maria Partners and Pathways service delivery model.

Funding source: Villa Maria

Year: 2005-07

Staff: Betty Haralambous, Kirsten Moore

Summary: The aim of this project was to evaluate the role of HACC funded Social Support Services for people of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds to inform future service practice. The project objectives included:
. Develop a profile of current Social Support models and CALD service users in the North Western Metropolitan Region of Melbourne (NWMR);
. Evaluate the extent to which Social Support Services work towards improving the health and well being of CALD service users; and
. Propose recommendations and model(s) for future Social Support Services in the NWMR to further improve the health and well being of CALD service users.

There were five main components to this project:
1. A survey sent to all HACC funded Social Support service providers to provide information about their services (their role and aims);
2. Data analysis about who currently uses services, to explore whether people of CALD backgrounds are using services;
3. Focus group discussions with people using services, to obtain a consumer perspective;
4. A cost benefit analysis analysing the costs associated with the current services, new service models and financial benefits of the current services; and
5. A workshop with service providers (towards the end of the project) to discuss the findings and discuss future directions.

This mix of quantitative and qualitative data contributed to the development of a final report and recommendations, including proposed service models for the future.

Report available here ....

Funding source: Victorian Department of Human Services

Year: 2004-05

Staff: Joan Nankervis, Keith Hill, Melissa Russell, Marcia Fearn, Alison Stewart, Jean Magar

Summary: This project was undertaken in collaboration with Dietitians Association of Australia. The purpose of this initiative is to adapt the current "Well for Life resource kit" to the home setting.

Information about the "Well for Life resource kit" including links to the reports "Executive Summary - Well for Life" and the "Summary Report - Well for Life" are available under Service Development and Evaluation Research - Residential Aged Care - Well for Life: Improving nutrition and physical activity for residents of aged care facilities, link to this page here ....

The new resource kit aims to build capacity in primary health and community services staff to improve nutrition and physical activity for older people living at home and their carers.
The resource kit includes:
. Guidelines to assist staff problem solve relevant workplace problems, including two case studies
. Good Practice Checklist for Physical Activity and Nutrition and Action Plan
. Help Sheets on nutrition and physical activity topics
. 2 education supplements to promote physical activity and nutrition, and
. Details of complementary resources.

For access to the resources visit the Department of Human Services website, link here ....

Funding source: Victorian Department of Human Services

Year: 2004-05

Staff: Betty Haralambous

Summary: NARI undertook a consultancy project for Fronditha Care Inc and the City of Kingston to advise on the development of an evaluation framework and assist in analysing data in relation to the Culturally Equitable Gateway Strategy (CEGS). This consultancy involved quantitative and qualitative research methods that gauged client satisfaction, staff awareness, client tracking through the service system to improve service access.

For further information, contact Fronditha Care Inc on (03) 9552 4100.

Funding source: City of Kingston

Year: 2002-04

Staff: Kirsten Moore, Joan Nankervis, Patricia Buckley, Marcia Fearn, Fiona Bremner

Summary: Demand for Local Government HACC services has seen the need for a consistent approach to determining priority of access. NARI in conjunction with Local Government HACC providers in Victoria and the Victorian Department of Human Services, Western Metropolitan Region (WMR), have developed a priority of access tool. The tool is quick and easy to administer and uses information obtained through the Primary Care Partnership Initiative's Service Coordination Tools.

The tool has undergone two revisions since it was originally developed, based on feedback through trialling in the field. The current tool and guidelines (POA3) can be downloaded here:
- Priority of Access Tool 3 (POA3), available here ....
- Guidelines for the POA3, available here ....

Please refer to the Education Section / Available Education Programs / Priority of Access (POA) tool training - if you are interested in POA3 training. Link here ....

Funding source: Victorian Department of Human Services, Western Metropolitan Region

Reports: See above links

Year: 2001

Staff: Melissa Lindeman, Francine Hanley, Vanessa Mayhew-Rankcom, Kirsten Moore

Summary: The primary aim of this project was to develop a picture of how initial needs assessment is carried out in the Grampians Region of Victoria. The project reported on the practice of intake and initial needs assessment including: use of protocols, referral, assessment domains, defining need and prioritisation, reassessment, the role of GPs, and client data collection issues. Included recommendations for further development.

Reports: The final report "Initial Needs Assessment in Primary Care: Current practice in the Grampians Region of Victoria" is available here ....

Year: 2001

Staff: Joan Nankervis, Kirsten Moore, Deborah Osborne

Summary: The project developed a comprehensive five year strategic plan for use by service providers and purchasers to guide future development in the region according to current and projected needs. The strategic plan:
• Outlines potential areas for growth (geographic and/or service activities)
• Identifies opportunities for resource rationalisation to achieve efficiencies within current resource levels
• Identifies opportunities to strengthen communication and coordination between service providers within the context of changing program and service system structures, for example, Primary Care Partnerships (PCP's)

Funding source: Victorian Department of Human Services

Year: 2000

Staff: Melissa Lindeman, Kirsten Moore

Summary: Project developed a picture of demand and user profile of in-home HACC services delivered by local government to:
• Identify factors contributing to unmet demand,
• Develop strategies to assist LGAs deal with demand issues, and
• Recommend a consistent method of data collection, for all WMR councils to enable accurate measurement of service demand and service delivery.

Funding source: Victorian Department of Human Services

Reports: The final report "Analysis of Demand for Local Government ‘In-Home’ HACC Services in the Western Metropolitan Region" is available here ....

Year: 2000

Staff: Maree Nihill, Robyn Smith

Summary: A Community Aged Care Package (CACP) is a planned, co-ordinated and managed package of community care services established to assist a person with complex care needs. CACPs provide case management of a range of health and support services, together with ongoing monitoring and review of care needs. Melbourne Extended Care and Rehabilitation Service (MECRS) is the auspice agency for 80 CACPs, covering the local government areas of Moreland and Hume.

This project aimed to:
• explore clients’ and their carer’s experiences of and satisfaction with the CACP and service, and whether the care provided met their needs,
• identify issues of concern to clients and carers with regard to the care they received, and
• identify key issues for quality improvement for the service provider.
• determine client satisfaction with the services provided by the Community Support Services program.

Funding source: Community Support Services program, Melbourne Extended Care and Rehabilitation Service

Year: 1999

Staff: Sally Richardson, Maree Nihill, Kirsten Moore, Freda Vrantsidis, Anna Howe, Robyn Smith

Summary: The goal of the Linkages program is to complement the existing HACC service system, by providing a case management service to those frail aged and younger disable clients with complex care and support needs who are vulnerable to entering residential care. The study aimed to investigate:
• whether case management provides benefits for clients and their carers. In particular, it focused on contact with GPs, hospital admissions and a number of measures of general health and well being, and
• the relationships between Linkages case managers and other relevant service providers.

Funding source: Care Connect Inc in conjunction with Bayside Community Options, on behalf of the Victorian Linkages Programs

Year: 1999

Staff: Vanessa Mayhew, Melissa Lindeman, Keith Hill, Robyn Smith

Summary: This statewide project investigated risk factors for falls and other critical incidents requiring immediate assistance to inform decisions about client priority to receive a VICPACS (now known as Personal Alert Victoria). Key outcomes of the project included:
• an assessment framework incorporating assessment for VICPACS into the broad assessment process,
• guidelines to assist VICPACS assessors to assess comprehensively,
• an assessment record to facilitate the collection of information on which to base decisions about relative priority, and
• guidelines for decision making about relative priority of need for personal alert services.

Funding source: Victorian Department of Human Services

Year: 1999

Staff: Jane Sims, H. Nguyen, Dina LoGiudice, Robyn Smith

Summary: This project investigated access to services for elderly Vietnamese people with dementia in the Western metropolitan region of Victoria. The study aimed to:
• promote quality in service provision via the development of enhanced access, culturally sensitive assessment and improved integration and coordination of care,
• raise awareness amongst mainstream service providers of the cultural dimensions of dementia in the Vietnamese community,
• recommend strategies for an increased understanding of dementia in the elderly Vietnamese amongst service providers, and
• provide details that will assist in liaison between the Vietnamese community and service providers.

Funding source: Victorian Department of Human Services

Year: 1998

Summary: The Department of Human Services, in 1998, was introducing an expanded personal alarm response service called VICPACS (now known as Personal Alert Victoria). NARI worked with service providers to develop assessment protocols, principles to guide eligibility decisions and systems to enhance the 24 hour service response in this large, rural health region.

Year: 1998

Summary: The HACC Best Practice initiatives aimed to facilitate an integrated service system among service providers. In these action research projects, NARI staff provided the framework, supporting information and education to regional services providers to enable the development of protocols and action plans which were relevant at the local level. The services involved in developing successful Primary Care Partnerships built on this work.

Year: 1996-98

Summary: This project, undertaken as a joint consultancy with the Centre for Applied Gerontology, Bundoora Extended Care Centre, involved a national survey of 400 HACC service providers, investigation of outcomes of different targeting strategies and analysis of data on more than 20,000 clients assessed by the Aged Care Assessment Service (ACAS) in Victoria and Western Australia. On the basis of the consultancy research findings, a draft framework for the development of guidelines for resource allocation has been prepared and distributed nationally. Community consultations on this framework were conducted. Three research reports were produced for consideration by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care for incorporation into the HACC guidelines. One has subsequently been published by the Department.

Funding source: Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care