As the national reforms to aged and disability care continue to roll out, healthcare providers, government agencies and policy makers are in an ideal position to embrace a more flexible approach to service delivery in the community. But are we ready to make the leap?
Consultations conducted by Everybody’s Business in the past year have revealed a growing awareness among support workers of the need to shift away from the traditional ‘one size fits all’ model to a more flexible approach ; one in which the needs of both the consumer and carer are taken into account.
In other words, care providers need to find a better balance between offering clients task-driven work practises with a defined service type, and more flexible approaches that allow for problem-solving and targeted care. For example, this could mean giving workers the flexibility (within existing health and safety guidelines) to agree to undertake a particular task with one consumer, but not with another.
Innovative and successful approaches to flexible service delivery are already in play. In the United Kingdom (Helen Sanderson, 2019), some self-managed or wellbeing teams are encouraged to organise their own work schedules, fitting in with the clients and their own workers’ needs.
In conclusion, there are two questions which are a great starting point when considering a more flexible service delivery:
- How much better would it be for consumers if we were better able to explain why we can’t do a particular task and attempt to problem solve a way around it?; and
- How can we support staff to make better decisions about what they can do in conjunction with the person they support?
Do you have any other questions to add to the list?
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