Healthcare planning Current Needs Assessment for the Western Sydney Local Health District Western Sydney Medicare Local is one of the primary health care organisations, and it is devoted to the objectives of commonwealth and a strategic direction. It is also responsible for the planning and development of a strong and efficient health care service network by conducting collaborative population health planning and workforce development. WentWest became the Western Sydney Medicare Local in the first round of Medicare Locals in mid-2011, and, as part of WentWest’s Strategic Plan for 2013-2017, five health priorities have been identified through the interrogation of data and stakeholder consultations. The main aim of these priorities is to achieve equitable health outcomes. The health priorities include: Aboriginal Health According to the survey, aboriginal people accounted for the largest population to present to hospitals with various conditions. Also, the morbidity and mortality due to chronic diseases among the aboriginal population is extremely high, which is attributed to an inequity of access to available health services. Smoking- and behaviour-related health issues are very common among the Aboriginal population. Aged Care Older people lack access to primary health care services in residential aged care facilities. The rates and consequences of osteoporosis in the ageing population is also an increasing concern. Chronic Diseases Chronic diseases account for over 48% of hospital admissions and health utilisation in the Western Sydney Local Health District (WSLHD), with sub-optimal management of chronic disease in primary care. Mental Health WentWest has found that there is a comparatively limited amount of access to psychiatric facilities, both private and public, in Western Sydney. Financial stress and housing concerns are reasonably common among he Western Sydney population, causing psychological stress. Population Health (Health Literacy) The health literacy level across Western Sydney is extremely poor in terms of residents’ understanding of health issues and navigation of the health system. This is becoming even more challenging, especially in culturally and linguistic diverse Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and refugee populations. What is your organisation’s role in addressing these priorities? How is this articulated in the strategic plan of your organisation? Write a summary of your community's profile, highlight demographic data for older people and people with disabilities. Auburn is a suburb in western Sydney, NSW, Australia. It is located 19 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre of the local government of the Auburn Council. Auburn is one of the most multicultural communities in Australia. According to the 2011 census, the population of Auburn is approximately 73,738, with 8.6% of the population aged 65 years and over. More than half of the population (i.e., 56.9%) was born overseas. The majority of those born overseas are from China (11.3%), followed by Vietnam (4.5%), South Korea (4.2%), India (3.6%) and Turkey (3.5%). Also, about 0.6% of Auburn community residents are identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders. Auburn has a high rate of unemployment as compared with Western Sydney and Greater Sydney, and residents of some parts of Auburn still cannot rely on public transport. Hospitalisation from diabetes and coronary heart disease are two of the main health issues in Auburn. Auburn Hospital is a 155-bed facility in the community; it provides 24-hour emergency services as well as medical, surgical, maternal and paediatric facilities, including coronary care and intensive care facilities. Draft some survey questions for an area of need in your community (based on issues you have identified from data obtained through community profiling). • What does the term ‘health’ mean to you? • Do you know what health services are available in your community? • Have you experienced any discrimination related to health issues? • Where and how do you travel for treatment? • How often do you visit your GP? • Do you feel the services available in your community are adequate? • Do you feel supported? • What changes need to be considered to improve the health status of your community? Classify the need using Bradshaw’s taxonomy of needs. What methods will you use to conduct the survey? How will you use this information in the strategic planning process? I will conduct a survey by visiting the community on my own and meeting and asking people various questions and documenting their responses. I will focus mainly on aboriginal, children’s and elderly health care concerns. Local peoples’ points of view should be welcomed and respected. Also, visiting a local information centre for the community could be helpful in this case. All of the information collected should be properly documented and processed, and it will be discussed with healthcare professionals, stakeholders and local government representatives, so as to implement any possible changes in the health care system to benefit the local population. Activity 4 Notice the district boundaries for the area, what towns are included? Major cities/towns located within this Medicare Local is Glenorie and Sydney. What surprises you about this data? Explore the types of measures available, and build a report based on data you need for your community assessment. Check out community comparisons and make note on issues that are above or below the Australian averages and adjacent communities As you build your report notice and make notes on what data is not included in this report, you will need to retreive it from other sources. The most surprising issue about the data is the low number of older people visiting Auburn’s health care facilities. This is evidenced by the fact that only 16% of people reported visiting a nurse or health care professional. It is evident that there is only a small number of people making use of professional health care services. The 10% of adults who access the emergency departments can mean two things; one is that there are appropriate health care facilities that address their health care issues before they get to the hospital, or there are only a few older people who access the emergency health care facilities. However, given the low rate of older people accessing health care facilities, the fact that fewer patients are making contact with professional health care givers could mean that only a few older people are making use of the emergency health care services (Herbert, Flego, Moodie, Keating, & Swinburn, 2013). Activity 5 Compare data with your preliminary community profile. (Need to answer) Does this help you identify issues you need to find out more about? Yes, this does help me to identify issues and other common factors within my community in order to benefit local health. If so, what are the issues and how will you follow them up? The Aged Care Assessment Program (ACAP) provides a wide variety of services that support both older people and a group of disabled young people (Dunbar et al., 2012). The main objective of the program is to provide comprehensive and effective assessments of frail older persons’ health care needs and to assist them in gaining access to the best and most appropriate type of health care services, including securing approval for residential settings and subsidised Commonwealth Government Care services in the community. There are many issues/challenges raised related to the ACAP. Some of the identified problems include addressing challenging issues that relate to providing the best services to the target population, such as communicating with older and frail persons who have communication disabilities. There are insufficient tools to help address such issues in the ACAP setting, and getting the appropriate tools to address the specific needs of these patients can be difficult. Professionals need to receive the best training possible, so that they can address and implement appropriate programs to support the targeted group. Accessing the ACAP facilities is also a big challenge for frail older persons, because most of these facilities are located only in specific places. Although the programs are aimed at addressing both community and residential settings, only a few people can access these services efficiently. The space and facilities dedicated to ACAP services are also inadequate, and the ratio of resources to persons targeted for care is not balanced. Therefore, increasing and availing more programs that are aimed at the frail, elderly population needs to be improved, so that more people can access them. After comparing the ACAP data with my preliminary community profile, I found that the issues it faces are almost identical to those in Auburn. Addressing some conditions in the program might be challenging, due to the inadequate personnel and resources available. The personnel need to go through ample training to equip themselves with the skills and knowledge needed to address the issues presented to them (Smith, 2011). References Dunbar, J. A., Reddy, P., Walker, C., & Hernan, N. (2012). Sustaining modified behaviors learned in a diabetes prevention program in regional Australia: the role of social context. BMC Health Services Research, 12(1), 460-465. Herbert, J., Flego, A., Moodie, M., Keating, C., &Swinburn, B. (2013). Methods for the evaluation of the Jamie Oliver Ministry of Food program. BMC Public Health, 13(1), 411-413. Medicare Local Western Sydney (2014a). Comprehensive needs assessment. Retrieved from http://www.wentwest.com/images/docs/CNA-Final-14-15.pdf Medicare Local Western Sydney (2014b). Demographic overview: Auburn. Retrieved from http://www.wentwest.com/images/docs/13357_WW_Auburn_Community_Profile_WEB.pdf MyHealthCommunities. (2015). National health performance authority. Retrieved from http://www.myhealthycommunities.gov.au/medicare-local/ml118#top Smith, B. (2011). Evaluation of health promotion programs: Are we making progress? Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 22(3), 165-169.