Oral Presentation Lowitja Institute International Indigenous Health and Wellbeing Conference 2016

Social and emotional wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: Understanding service delivery (#5)

Ray Lovett 1 , Kerri Viney 1 , Hope Peisley 2 , Samantha Siripol 3
  1. National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
  2. Australian Government Department of Health, Canberra, ACT, Australia
  3. National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

Aim: The aim of this study is to describe and evaluate SEWB service delivery, funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across Australia.

Methods: Up to 97 organisations that provide SEWB services across all states and territories (and also receive funding from the Australian Government in the 2015-16 financial year to provide SEWB services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) will be surveyed about their delivery of SEWB services in the 2014-15 financial year. This data will be analysed alongside existing SEWB service delivery data from the routine administrative data collection, the Online Services Report (OSR).

Results: The results will be used to understand the nature of SEWB service delivery, what health organisations report as the main enablers and barriers to effective SEWB service delivery and how services could be supported to strengthen SEWB service delivery. Service level attributes will be assessed, such as appropriateness (e.g. standards and guidelines in place, relevance to client needs), effectiveness (e.g. referrals, care planning processes) and sustainability (e.g. workforce stability, infrastructure, data monitoring). The potential overall impact of this SEWB service delivery on population SEWB outcomes will also be discussed.

Conclusions/implications: By understanding the enablers and barriers of SEWB service delivery, we anticipate that we will provide additional evidence to funders, policymakers and communities about the effective support and delivery of services to improve SEWB outcomes. This will ultimately empower health organisations to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of SEWB service delivery and improve the SEWB of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We also anticipate that information from this study will support the development of an organisation-level SEWB National Key Performance Indicator to support continuous quality improvement in the primary health care setting.