State Conference 2008: Respite and Social Support.

The dates have been set for Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday  November 18, 19, & 20.

Click her for Conference Brochure

 The Conference will be held at the Beach Palace Hotel down on Coogee beach, Sydney.  Key topics for presentation will be:
Service System Access Points  and  System Pathways
Mental Health Respite
Respite Co-ordination Groups
Future of Not-for-Profits:   Funding  vs  Purchasing Model
ADHD  &  Dementia  from a Naturopathic Perspective
Carers Panel:  Definition of Quality Service
Unmet Needs.

Format will remain as a full day Tuesday, half day Wednesday, and full day Thursday.
Tuesday will be structured around a 3 x 3 session where everyone will participate in 3 smaller sessions spread across the day.  Price will include the Cocktail party on Tuesday evening and a public transport travel ticket covering rail, bus, and ferry travel around a 10km radius from central Sydney.
The Drum Cafe  is also Back.

 Prices are:

Members:          Early Bird  (September 30)            379-50  (GST inclusive)
                          Regular 445-50  (GST Inclusive)

Non- Members               Early Bird  (September 30)           478-50  (GST inclusive)
                                       Regular  539-00. (GST inclusive).

 

Research Project: The Capacities of the Respite & Social Support Sector to Support people with a Mental Illness and their Carers:
The Mental Health Council of Australia Capacity Building Grants.

Grant Success – e-Learning comes to Sector

We would like to announce the success of a grant to increase the capacity of Respite and Social Support services to access e-learning opportunities through Interchange Respite Care (NSW) Incorporated.  The application had three parts under the Mental Health Council of Australia Capacity Building Grants funded from FACSIA. 

We have been funded for 3 particular projects. These being:

1: Title:    e-Learning Carer Skills Recognition of Prior Learning and Training Program
Description:     To modify the current Toolbox under Flexible Learning for Aged Care Guide for Recognition of Prior Learning and convert it Mental Health Carer Skills Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and Recognition of Prior Experience (RPE) and identify extra units for completion of Competency based Units for completion of a qualification. 

2: Title:        Respite Mental Health Orientation Program for Induction of Staff and Carers
Description:     The modification of a current package as produced by Interchange Respite Care (NSW) inc.  Orientation or Induction is still a need for both carers and staff with specific concentration on Mental Health.  It would also allow the program in Carer Participation and for staff training to be run online. 

3: Title:                Purchase of a Server Licence to allow independence from Recurrent Cost of leasing Adobe Connect Enterprise Server Licence
Description:     Purchase of Adobe Connect Enterprise Server.  This would increase autonomous development of Respite Training and Service provision across NSW and Australia in line with a strategic plan for respite across Australia.  Meetings online and conferences could also be placed into this media with competency based assessment to assist services in their move to become a more learning organisation. 

Carers Listening Post

We shall be rolling out more consumer and stakeholder forums following on from those we ran in 2006.  These will build on what we talked about and sought before.  We will be able to update forum participants on the information we gathered before, what we did with it, new respite funds  now in the sector, and then seek new feedback from carers and stakeholders  on their issues and value of respite support.  We shall be titling these forums the Carer Listening Post.
These will again be  interactive forums on respite service provision and carer’s needs, preferred options for support, likely solutions that may need resourcing at a state level.  Respite covering aged care, people with disabilities, mental health issues and other areas. 
At this stage the basic format will be :

Who is Interchange Respite Care NSW

Carer & Stakeholder Respite Forums 2006-07, What we gathered and what we did with it.

The Service System Landscape.

Types of Respite support

Your Reference Point:  The Service System and your Service Provider:

Do Support Services meet your needs

What do you want out of respite care and how could it be improved.

Carers Quality Audit and Satisfaction Survey.

We ve had a few members already show in interest and I will put these on in areas where members think there will be interest. The basic plan is that I need local members to find and book a venue, organize catering, and distribute flyers to their clients.  I will develop flyers, pay for catering , and deliver the sessions.

 

National HACC Forum.
‘Promoting Independence’.

This was convened by the Victorian Department of Human Services and attracted over 340 delegates (invitation only), to Melbourne for the 2 day Conference on Thursday / Friday February 21 & 22.
The focus of the National Forum was to examine the Well-Being and Re-enablement models of service support to frail older clients within the HACC program which have been developed and currently being utilized in Western Australia and Victoria.  Similar models in existence in the UK and New Zealand were also showcased.
The thrust of the Key-note sessions was to highlight the growing demand for HACC services amongst the frail older demographic group, particularly for the service type needs of  Personal Care   and   Domestic Assistance, and the need to engage and empower clients to develop or retain skills that will enable them to maintain a level of independence, and hence be less reliant on these two types of support. 

It is clear that the relevant State government departments responsible for the HACC program in those states take a more flexible approach to the interpretation of the HACC Guidelines and negotiated Outcomes for local providers.  These innovative approaches are driven not only by cost demands and levels of unmet need,  but also by a shift to a more client-centred service approach.
Although promoting an innovative and new approach to service delivery, the National Forum was narrow in focusing on 1 part of the target group and the impact on 2/3 service types (Personal Care / Domestic Assistance / Social Support).

The following is the website address to the pre-conference information, along with the Speaker Presentations. http://www.haccforum08.com.au

Research Projects.

1. The Capacities of the Respite and Social Support sector to support people with a Mental Illness and their Carers.

 Stage 1:  We have collected data from Centrelink and now collated that into HACC planning regions, on population figures of who is in receipt of the Carers pension, Carers Allowance and Disability Support Pension.  We sourced this data from Centrelink as information for members to gauge an estimation of the potential population group in their region, and perhaps a rough measurement on levels of unmet need. 

We have undertaken research on the eligibility definition of population target groups across relevant funding programs.  This has also encompassed disability eligibility definitions from Centrelink and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.  Across HACC, CSTDA, and the NRCP programs, people with a psychiatric disability are part of our target group.

We are now looking at the core competencies required to support people with a mental illness and comparing these across the required core competencies in Disability and Aged care Certificate IV courses.  In comparison to the Certificate IV in Mental Health (non clinical), there are at least 5 common competencies with a few others having similarities. 

We have developed a Workforce Skills and Knowledge Needs survey which we are initially distributing and trialling at the Regional Briefing Sessions.     

                

Studenst and Interested Researchers.

We are seeking a list of interested staff, managers, and management committee that are interested in the research above as outlined. 

Some of your staff will as part of their employment been granted study leave and might do assignments on their respite workplaces.   If staff are doing this type of work we would appreciate if they could email their assignments to us for collection and collating into a body of work.  They might also send the assignment explanation worksheet as well. 

Should staff wish to participate in specific research in respite we have a number of interrelated research topics that they could do some of their assignments on to assist us in this development phase.  Please give them  my email and telephone number above. 

If you have connections to the various student placement supervisors or lecturers interested in this field could you also forward our contact details to them such that we might make contact and enhance our sector wide capability. 

Working with Children Check - Criminal Record Check. The Queensland Blue Card System.

The Working with Children Check has been an issue for a number of members here in NSW for some time.  Our problem is of course that the NSW Commission for Children & Young People will only undertake this for paid employees.  Additionally, organizations have to undertake separate checks, and processes, for Criminal Record Checks on prospective staff or volunteers.

We have now undertaken some research on the Queensland system and will be endeavouring to have this adopted nationally.

Service Description Schedules.

December 2007. Kevin Marron.

Very shortly we will be releasing a position paper for memebrs to use in their current negotiations over their Service Dwescription Schedules. DADHC is considering block bulking a variety of program monies services currently receive under sigle program service types, rather than itemising this by program funding models as has been done historically. This maybe advantageous so long as there is more fredom to deliver the type of support your clients need and the agreed outputs are acceptable.

More information shortly.

HACC Respite Guidelines

September 2007 by Kevin Marron

The HACC Respite service type Guidelines have recently been released by DADHC following the protracted review which commenced in 2004. This is just an 11 page document which has been greatly contracted from the 64 page drafts circulating this time last year.
Read more »

HACC Social Support Guidelines

September 2007 by Kevin Marron

The HACC Social Support service type Guidelines have recently been released by DADHC following the protracted review which commenced in 2004. This is just an 11 page document which has been greatly contracted from the 64 page drafts circulating this time last year. Read more »

 

 

(Go up)