December 2016 Update

Read our latest update online here:

December 2016 Update – Care Forward, Care Consultancy & Care Assess

My warm and best wishes to you and all your family and friends for this Christmas and New Year period.

And I hope you really enjoy this newsletter update as you reflect on the great outcomes of 2016 that we have achieved together.

Joe Towns (Managing Director)

Harry and Sally: A Story of Turnaround

Update on Care Consultancy

New Tasmanian HACC Program Pilot

Save Money On Your Digital Printing Costs

Mrs Jago – Significant Improvement

Special IT Offer

Help needed? Help available!

Appointment of Wendy Edwards as CEO!

Click here to read online:

December 2016 Update – Care Forward, Care Consultancy & Care Assess

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Care Assess’ role within the Pilot is as independent Assessment Agency, assessing clients waitlisted by TasCarepoint and prioritising needs to ensure not only that priority is given to those clients on the wait list the longest, but also identifying clients who require greater levels of care than the Tasmanian HACC Program can provide (these clients are transferred to other programs or systems).

Background

The environment in which community care is delivered across Australia is undergoing significant change that is affecting all aspects of service delivery. Nationally the introduction and full roll out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), aged care reform and more locally the Tasmanian Government’s One Health System reforms are all affecting how services are designed, funded and delivered.

These reforms provide an ideal opportunity to examine what the Tasmanian HACC Program is providing, who it is servicing and whether improvements can be made to make it more effective and efficient. This will allow the Tasmanian HACC Program to redefine its role in the broader health and disability sector to ensure it is delivering value for clients and supporting health, aged care and disability reforms.

Objectives

The objectives of the Tasmanian HACC Program Pilot Project are to:

• trial aspects of the Tasmanian HACC Program redesign, including but not limited to a wellness and reablement approach to care, including assessment and reassessment of client and carer need; a central point of referral coordination and referral reporting; and
• provide service to clients on the TasCarepoint wait list.

Potential Benefits

• Trial of Tasmanian HACC Program redesign elements, this includes:
  • a wellness and reablement approach to care and assessment
  • assessment of client need, independent of service provision
• reduction of clients on the TasCarepoint wait list for services

Care Assess is honoured to be selected as one of only two organisations Tasmania-wide to take part in this Tasmanian HACC Program Pilot, and we are working hard to fulfil our role in providing an independent Assessment Agency approach to care planning and delivery.

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The post Newsletter: December 2015 appeared first on Care Assess.

Care Assess is the leading RAS across Tasmania. We fundamentally believe in the reform agenda recommended by the Productivity Commission in its Caring for Older Australian’s report and the subsequent reforms that were initiated by the Labor government and now continued by the Liberal government. We believe that these reforms (including the recent changes to My Aged Care) can deliver improved wellbeing for older people, particularly though:

• improved access to information;
• consistency of service access; and
• a system wide approach to wellness and reablement.

As one of our highest priorities, Care Assess’ RAS wellness assessors are focusing upon providing reablement assessment and supports, including referral into restorative care services where appropriate, for all clients who can and should benefit from this.

We are very keen to continue working closely with service providers and encourage organisations to contact us directly regarding any referrals and assessments you have questions about. You can email rasintake@careassess.com.au or just pick up the phone!

The gap between reform and reality is is closing. We are committed to continually improving aspects of the system over which we have control or the capacity to influence. We all, as broader stakeholders within the Aged Care System, have a responsibility to continue identifying, raising and raising again, the areas for improvement in the new system and striving to be agents of change ourselves.

We are three and a half years into a 10 year reform agenda and it will shortly be 12 months until February 2017, the next major step in our reform journey. It’s important that we all work together to ensure that the strategic vision of the My Aged Care gateway programme is realized so that the planned reforms of the coming years have every chance of success.

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Dear Key Stakeholder,

Key Stakeholder Update: Company Re-Structure

As you may know, “Care Assess” has been selected to be a part of the Australian Government’s new Aged Care Gateway Programme, My Aged Care (commencing 1 July 2015). My Aged Care provides the entry gateway for clients accessing home care and support (aged care) services, funded by the Australian Government.

Because of this, we need to make a change to our company’s structure in order to uphold the Department’s requirements of My Aged Care Regional Assessment Service providers.

We need to separate “Care Assess” from the grant funded arm of our company, which currently also provides home care and support (aged care) services, funded by the Australian Government; this will ensure that our Assessment Services operate independently, without bias or conflict of interest.

New names and more!

We are today beginning an exciting company re-structure with a new operational model to separate our assessment services from the service delivery side of our organisation!

To highlight this change in structure, we will begin using three separate trading names and brands!

These new names will distinguish the structural and functional separation between our assessment services and our service delivery.

This change as a company is a functional separation as well as a structural one; these separate divisions now have separate (distinct) staff, roles and locations.

Structurally, this organisational model can be understood as ‘one company with two arms, separated by a central body.’

“Care Assess” – Assessment & Care Coordination

“Care Assess” is now the separate, privately-contracted division of Care Assessment Consultants Pty Ltd, providing an independent assessment agency approach to the delivery of health, personnel and assessment, as well as care and coordination services across Tasmania, under fee-for-service (use pays) arrangements.

Therefore, if we broker services under the “Care Assess” name, they will be privately contracted services, separate to our grant funded / subsidised home care and support programs.

“Care Consultancy” – Corporate Support & Services

In order to ensure true separation, a new central business unit has been established to manage the corporate and support functions of the company. This separate division trades as “Care Consultancy”.

Care Consultancy will not only operate the central management and administrative functions of the company for our Care Assess and Care Forward businesses.

Care Consultancy will also offer its key resources and assets to provide corporate support and services to external organisations – in order to help other small to medium businesses improve, grow, and increase in efficiency and effectiveness.

Through the provision of our key personnel, human resources, facilities, products and resources, Care Consultancy will leverage our significant experience, skills, systems, processes and tools to serve and benefit other like-minded organisations and individuals.

“Care Forward” – Home Care & Support

From 1 July 2015, our home care and support services will come under a new name, “Care Forward.”

Care Forward is now the separate trading division that will provide service delivery for our grant funded programs including Home Support services and Home Care Packages.

Care Forward provides and delivers services independently of Care Assess.

More information

For more information about Care Assess, Care Consultancy and Care Forward please visit on our new websites!

• www.careassess.com.au
• www.careconsultancy.com.au
• www.careforward.com.au

Please forward the news!

Can you please forward this news within your organisation to relevant staff who will be affected by this change?

Once again, thank you for your engagement; it is a privilege and an honour to be working with you, for you!

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Care Assessment Consultants has today written to Aged & Community Services Tasmania Members and HACC Forum Members in each of Tasmania’s three regions to provide an update regarding Care Assess’ Establishment Plan and activities undertaken to separate the Assessment Services from its aged care service delivery programs, to ensure both functions are undertaken appropriately in line with the Department’s requirements.

Summary of the letter:

• Care Assessment Consultants has implemented a “Policy of Separation” between the provision of RAS Assessment Services and aged care related Service Delivery, including Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) services, to ensure structural and functional separation and prevent any likely, perceived or actual conflicts of interest.
• Strategies to ensure structural and functional separation include separate (distinct) staff, separate roles and organisational structures, separate locations and offices where possible, strict application of access controls and well defined procedures to prevent inappropriate communication and referrals between these two separate arms of the company.
• In addition to the structural and functional separation, a new model of operations has been implemented to create a brand separation within Care Assessment Consultants (the company) – between the trading names, “Care Assess”, which will deliver RAS Assessments, and “Care Forward”, a separate trading name and brand, which will deliver CHSP services.

Further details including quality assurance and feedback mechanisms are provided in the full letter, which is attached for your information:

•  2015.06.16 Care Assess RAS Establishment Update (Separation of Services) – ACST

As always, we look forward to hearing any feedback you have!

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It is both a privilege and an honour to serve Tasmania in this way. There is a lot of work ahead now for Care Assess, but it’s what we love to do and what we are committed to doing well. A big thank you to all Care Assess’ staff, directors and stakeholders for being part of the team selected for this auspicious work.

It is 30 years now since the Home and Community Care Program commenced in 1985; we are all a part of history now with the government’s reform commencing the Commonwealth Home Support Program from 1 July 2015, and separating out assessment under this new independent aged care gateway, which we are a part of.

Now as we finalise our plans and commence implementing our Regional Assessment Service for Tasmania, we can continue to be thankful that we, as the only Tasmanian organisation, are part of the pick among a group of just over a dozen organisations nationally, to commence this exciting new work on behalf of Australia’s first aged care gateway.

We hope to keep making ‘history’ – now in how we run the race ahead!

Senator The Hon Mitch Fifield – Media Release – Tender results for home support assessment providers announced – 2 April 2015

“The Australian Government is making it easier for older Australians to access the care they need to remain living in their own home through new home support assessment arrangements. In October 2014, the Assistant Minister for Social Services, Senator Mitch Fifield, announced the establishment of the My Aged Care Regional Assessment Services (RAS). The RAS is being introduced to streamline the assessment process for older Australians seeking access to aged care supports in the home.

 

Today Minister Fifield announced the 13 organisations that have been selected to operate the RAS, following an open tender process. From 1 July 2015, the RAS will be responsible for conducting face-to-face assessments of older people needing entry-level support at home. Minister Fifield said that the assessment service, accessed through the Government’s My Aged Care website and call centre, would be standardised to help older people and their families navigate the aged care system and find suitable services in a timely manner.

 

“For the first time, there will be a single point of entry into the aged care system to make it easier for older people to get access to the information and services they need to continue living independently in their own homes,” Minister Fifield said. “After contacting My Aged Care, older people will be able to meet with a My Aged Care regional assessor and talk through their current circumstances, their individual needs and goals.” “Importantly, home support assessments will be separated from service delivery to ensure the focus is on individuals’ needs and goals,” Minister Fifield said.

 

The RAS will assess clients seeking to access the Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP), which is a $1.7 billion programme commencing from 1 July this year. The CHSP will roll several existing home support programmes into one streamlined programme, including the Commonwealth Home and Community Care (HACC), National Respite for Carers (NRCP), Day Therapy Centres (DTCs); and Assistance with Care and Housing for the Aged (ACHA) programmes.

 

Selected from an open tender process, the organisations will provide full assessment coverage across the 52 planning regions in all states and territories, except Victoria and Western Australia – where current state government models will continue. Minister Fifield said that a number of specialist services and community organisations had formed consortia to offer a tailored capability to support indigenous populations, culturally and linguistically diverse populations and people with dementia.

 

The RAS will complement the existing Aged Care Assessment Teams (ACATs) which undertake assessments for higher intensity home care and residential care services. The successful organisations to deliver the RAS are:

• Access Care Network Australia Pty Ltd
• Australian Regional and Remote Community Services Limited
• Care Assessment Consultants Pty Ltd (Care Assess)
• Catholic Healthcare Limited
• Community Options Australia Incorporated
• Feros Care
• Health Administration Corporation (HAC)
• Partners 4 Health Limited
• Resthaven Incorporated
• Serendipity (WA) Pty Ltd
• Suncare Community Services Inc
• The Uniting Church in Australia Property Trust (Q.)
• UnitingCare Wesley Adelaide Incorporated

 

Further information about the RAS is available at: https://www.dss.gov.au/our-responsibilities/ageing-and-aged-care/aged-care-reform/my-aged-care/request-for-tender-for-the-my-aged-care-regional-assessment-service“

The Department has produced a number of products to support the announcement including fact sheets and also updated information on the Department’s website.

The fact sheets can be accessed from My Aged Care pages of the Department’s website at www.dss.gov.au/MyAgedCare

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As a new disability care provider under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), Care Assess will bring our points of difference to disability clients and the disability sector across Tasmania.

We will initially provide the following supports (before broadening our service delivery scope):

• Specialised assessment of skills, abilities and needs
• Community nursing care for high care needs
• Therapeutic supports
• Assistance in coordinating or managing life stages, transitions and supports
• Physical wellbeing activities

We want people with disabilities and their carer(s) to benefit from our existing experience in wellness and reablement; we know that we can make a positive difference in improve people’s health and wellbeing, and we’re excited about the benefits that our focus on enablement can bring to the sector.

It’s about enhancing the abilities of people with a disability, not only responding to their inabilities.

All of our allied health care staff are particularly excited, including our exercise physiologists and occupational therapists, about broadening our previous focus on aged care to a much wider horizon.

After all, that’s our vision: to enable more people to live well at home across Tasmania.

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• Download: Improving Tasmanian’s Health At Home, Care Assess Public Stakeholder Submission to the DHHS Green Paper, 20 February 2015

Summary

The goal of the Tasmanian health system should be quality care that is coordinated, centred on people’s needs and focused on maximising their wellness through the provision of preventative and pro-active services as well as responsive healthcare, and delivered in the community wherever it is effective and efficient to do so.

Care Assess’ overarching response to the question of how can the Tasmanian Government deliver safe and sustainable clinical services is to highlight the need for increased clinical care within the community. An increased and continued policy focus is required on delivering improved health and wellbeing outcomes through:

• Improved clinical sustainability through increased access to quality home health care alternatives, including community care substitutes for hospitalisation;
• Improved discharge planning through the involvement of community health professionals working within the hospitals;
• Reduced avoidable admission and readmission rates through development of widespread hospital avoidance and post acute programs; and
• Improved community care to promote active and healthy independence, and provide preventative support for clients with chronic health conditions.

To achieve DHHS’ stated goals for the Tasmanian health system, it should provide increased opportunities for:

1. Services that support Tasmanians to lead independent and active life-styles, feel safe at home and stay connected to their communities;
2. Community-based services that support Tasmanians with chronic health conditions that enable them to live well and avoid unnecessary complications or crises;
3. Community-based services that support Tasmanians with complex or multiple conditions, enabling them to remain as well and independent as possible and to avoid deterioration or complications in their complex health conditions;
4. Community-based rapid response services that provide urgent care for people when their health or independence rapidly deteriorates, including effective alternatives to hospitalisation;
5. Community-based hospital alternatives, including access to home healthcare substitutes for hospital services;
6. Hospital discharge planning by independent community-based health professionals. Hospital and home care providers should work together to ensure patients can leave hospital once their health treatment is complete with good post-discharge support in the community to reduce the likelihood of an emergency re-entry into hospital. From a client’s first contact with the Tasmanian hospital system, discharge planning should start – and patients and their carer(s) should be involved with their plans and goals to leave hospital;
7. Community-based reablement services and home rehabilitation when needed that prevent permanent disability, greater reliance on care and support, avoid hospital admission/re-admission or unnecessary length-of-stay, and provide adequate periods of assessment and recovery before any decision is made to move into long-term care. System-wide access to reablement and rehabilitation should be provided for services delivered outside the hospital setting and in the consumer’s home whenever possible;
8. Tasmanian’s to make positive choices regarding entry into long-term care after reablement and rehabilitation services and other alternatives have been comprehensively exhausted. Residents of care homes should consistently receive the same access to all necessary healthcare services as people living at home;
9. Better support and planning for people who want or need it when nearing end of life. All end-of-life care services should provide informed choice and control to people, including the ability for people to remain at home during their end of life stage if possible and desired; and,
10. Community-based care coordination services that are planned around the full range of people’s individual needs, and that truly prioritise prevention and support for maintaining people’s independence at home. For people using more than one service, the system should provide access to community-based health professionals that independently coordinate care, ensuring that all providers and services work together in an integrated way. This would improve quality and service value by better ensuring people benefit from the right mix of services (of those that are available), in the right place at the right time.

The areas that Care Assess is particularly focused upon delivering best practice services throughout the State include:

• Wellness services including basic home support, short term home enablement and reablement services;
• Allied health care services particularly hospital-based, residential-based and home-based exercise physiology and occupational therapy;
• Community and primary care based care coordination services, case management and chronic diseases self-management services;
• Rapid response hospital avoidance services including urgent and coordinated/integrated primary and community care;
• Technology based support and care services including the use of assistive technology and telehealth;
• Supported hospital discharge services including clinical post acute care;
• Other alternatives to hospital services;
• Home and residential-based reablement services;
• Home and residential-based rehabilitation services;
• Residential care GP services, including comprehensive health assessments;
• Home and residential-based advanced care planning;
• Home and residential-based end-of-life services; and
• Independent assessment and care coordination services for people using multiple services.

To read full response, go to Care Assess Public Submission to DHHS Green Paper – 20 February 2015.

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• Care Assess – PAP Program Evaluation Final Report – 20 February 2015

Some of the key findings of the evaluation include:

• Client satisfaction was extremely high with 98% of clients being satisfied with the support they received and 64% achieving their program goals; i.e. achieving the same level of independence they had prior to hospitalisation as assessed by Care Assess Service Coordinators;

• The majority of Discharge Planners (77%), ‘Agreed’ or ‘Strongly Agreed’ that the PAP program successfully reduced unnecessary patient time in hospital; and

• Only 5% of clients were referred for ongoing services at the completion of the program due to client goals not being attained, demonstrating the effectiveness of Service Coordinator’s care management in adjusting support throughout the intervention period in line with the client’s improved function.

Further findings, including identified areas for future improvement of this crucial Home and Community Care (HACC) Program, are highlighted in the report!

Background

Care Assess’ HACC Post Acute Packages (PAP) program aims to provide short term packages of support and care in the home for clients who have suffered an acute episode. These packages are time limited and more intensive than basic home support provided by mainstream HACC services. They help support elderly clients transition from a period of hospitalisation to living back in the community, enabling them to recover to their pre-acute level of independent functioning. This is achieved through the coordination of additional home support services such as personal care and domestic assistance, and through monitoring and review of client progress and service delivery.

Thank you

Care Assess wishes to thank all of our referrers and clients who have used or received the services of the HACC Post Acute Package (PAP) program over the last 10 years; thank you for the privilege of working with you, for you.

Care Assess wishes to particularly thank our dedicated staff; each of the many Service Coordinators and other support staff who have made the PAP program happen since 2004.

Care Assess also thanks all of our service providers across Tasmania who have worked with us in delivering home support for our clients in this program. Care Assess’ business model is distinctive in completely separating the assessment/coordination function provided by our staff from direct support service delivery, such as personal care and domestic assistance, provided by the staff of other organisations subcontracted to Care Assess. Thank you to the many organisations and support workers who provided services on our behalf to HACC clients in this program across Tasmania.

Care Assess wishes to acknowledge Silver Chain Group whose Personal Enablement Program (PEP) demonstrated the strategic benefit of short term enablement support programs within the context of the HACC program in Australia. Additionally, Care Assess thanks Silver Chain Group for the input they provided in preparing this evaluation report.

Finally, Care Assess owes a debt of gratitude to Tasmania’s Department of Health and Human Services who prior to 2004 first developed and operated their “HACC Packages” program to serve our local hospital and home support system. Thank you for the funding and other support received by the Department since that time, when Care Assess first developed and began managing the PAP program, which has now for a decade provided the benefits demonstrated in this Report both to our local health system and Tasmania’s home support system.

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