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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 13 Hansard (9 December) . . Page.. 4316 ..
When consumers do drop-in because they are not familiar with the changes to the Program these clients are seen and an intake process completed - as if the client had contacted the service by phone.
One to one contact with clients is retained for assessment, treatment and care purposes. Access to the service in the first instance is via the intake telephone line.
The new service delivery arrangements will be subjected to ongoing review and refinement. Consultative forums have, and will continue to be coordinated with consumers, staff, unions and stakeholders to ensure the identification of issues and resolutions. The implementation of the reforms will continue to be monitored by the ADP Reform Steering Committee.
(3)
Clients would probably have made contact with the Program by phone initially and been advised to drop-in.The drop-in duty system operated between the hours of 9.00 - 12.00 md and 1.00 pm - 4.00 pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Staff previously employed in counsellor/project officer positions would be rostered to perform duty system shifts consisting of a morning or afternoon duty shift, one to two occasions each week. Another staff member would be rostered as the 'back-up' duty system person.
Clients would present without an appointment. If the duty worker was already with a client then the back up person (if available) would see the client. The client demand on any given day was unpredictable. At times a client may wait hours before seeing a counsellor or on a busy Tuesday afternoon be asked to come back on Thursday. It is unclear how many clients may have left the service due to the waiting times.
The duty system did not work well clients who were working. They found it difficult to access the duty counsellor during their lunch hour, as there may have been a queue before they arrived.
Clients would usually see a counsellor on the day they presented for the duty system. However, if the client was assessed as requiring allocation to a counsellor for a counselling intervention then the client may wait up to three weeks for an appointment with their counsellor.
The new service arrangements meets the needs of clients to access with the intake service operating 24 hours each day, whilst making initial contact an appointment time is booked and staffing resources are allocated to meet service level demands.
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