Co-designing and delivering place-based and community-led solutions to health and social challenges for government, NGOs, communities and businesses to help people to maintain health and well-being for a long and prosperous life.
THE PROGRAM
The Healthy Life, Healthy Communities Program is an initiative of the Healthy Communities Foundation Australia and works with governments, businesses and local communities to help them to co-design, develop and deliver programs in collaboration with communities and stakeholders that help people to maintain good health practices, and address health concerns, during their adult lives. ​
CASE STUDY
The Remote Integrated Collaborative Health Initiative (or RICH) was a joint project involving the Foundation, Interhealthcare Pty Ltd, PhyzX2U Pty Ltd, Kineophonics and local communities to explore sustainable models for delivering integrated primary, nursing and allied health care to rural and remote communities using a mix of on-site, virtual and mobile services.
PROGRAM RATIONALE
Our current approaches to community and individual health are not working. Our health system is designed around 'illness and injury', not keeping people healthy in their communities.
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The Remote Integrated and Collaborative Health (RICH) program was co-designed by the Foundation, InterHealthCare (a private allied health company with a passion for rural health) and our communities to reimagine health care as a high quality, community-led and integrated system that places people at the centre of care.
PROGRAM SCOPE
General Practice
Exploring better use of team-based care and case conferencing to improve patient management and outcomes, and make rural practice more sustainable.
Exercise Pysiology
Designing a student-delivered model of on-site and virtual physiotherapy.
Dentistry
Evaluating the latest generation digital scanners to reduce travel and time costs for dentists to make remote delivery more viable.
Practice Nursing
Deploying a virtual practice nurse to support local health care services during temporary shortages and to augment medical care in residential aged care facilities.
Nursing
Examining the expanded use of nurses to manage chronic disease, immunisations and women's health.
Nutrition
Evaluating a senior student-delivered model of nutrition support with online clinical supervision.
Chronic Disease Management
Exploring improved use of qualified nurses to undertake preliminary patient assessments and to prepare care plans.
Aboriginal Health Workers
Trialing the employment of Aboriginal Health Workers to build connections to community and improve health.
Physiotherapy
Developing a student-delivered model of on-site and virtual physiotherapy.
Speech Pathology
Trialing asynchronous app to support non-verbal children and adults stroke survivors.
Telehealth
Using GP-led telehealth for routine and low acuity care, and access to specialists.
Clinical Pharmacy
Examining how to best integrate clinical pharmacists in medication management for chronic disease patients to improve health outcomes.
PERFORMANCE
The RICH Steering Committee has established a robust performance framework to evaluate the effectiveness of integrated person-centred care on:
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the quality of care;
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patient health outcomes;
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the financial viability of integrated models.
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Performing reports will be shared with other providers to encourage more organisations to adopt the community-led integrated person-centred care approach.
GET INVOLVED
Want to help rural and remote communities to access primary health care, but don't know how? We get it. Making rural practice financially viable is difficult under current funding models, and without a dedicated program to support bookings, payments and service coordination. The RICH Program is designed to help general practice, allied health, pharmacy, nursing and other services to coordinate the delivery of services to rural and remote people by taking away some of the complexities of consulting remotely. The aim of the Program is to develop a fully scaleable model that is viable and rewarding for health practitioners.
Latest Stories
Want to talk to someone about the Healthy Life Program. Send us your email and we will be in touch.