Page 4058 - Week 13 - Thursday, 31 October 2013
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feeling misunderstood by the service system and not knowing what to expect from services. Families also said there appeared to be insufficient collaboration between the different services supporting them, which left them in the frustrating position of having to tell their story time and again.
One of the families who participated explained that lack of collaboration between service providers led to mixed messages and prolonged hardship. In their case, everything changed when a care and protection worker took responsibility for coordinating all of the services which were involved with the family. In their own words:
Alex brought everyone together to work on a plan. For the first time in two years we feel as though we’re listened to.
We learnt that some families do not always fit into the service system categories and therefore miss out on the supports they require.
These experiences were then used to analyse underlying barriers and possible solutions, once again in conjunction with the families themselves. It was identified that while there were currently multiple layers of coordination across the service system, support workers do not have the authority to make decisions and bring about the wraparound solutions which are needed. Finally, the research highlighted the need to ensure early access and coordination of services to achieve better outcomes.
As I mentioned, these issues face all governments and are not unique to the ACT. Research conducted by Professor Baldry of the University of New South Wales found that complex needs have a compounding effect and positive interactions between support services are key to the achievement of positive outcomes. Further, research demonstrates that in New South Wales high cost services, such as policing, hospitals and corrective services, continue to be associated with a small number of people, many of whom would benefit from earlier and less intensive responses which could prevent the cycles of crisis from occurring.
Having gained a solid understanding of the issues, we began a testing stage to implement an improved approach with a small group of families. The strategic board established the Directors-General Strengthening Families Committee to authorise the improved approach to support families with multiple needs.
This one-government approach brought together the Community Services, Health, Education and Training, Justice and Community Safety, and Chief Minister and Treasury directorates to work towards a holistic solution for these families. The Directors-General Strengthening Families Committee included representation from the Australian Federal Police and the commonwealth Department of Human Services, in recognition of the cross-jurisdictional challenges of integrating service delivery in the ACT.
The Directors-General Strengthening Families Committee provided oversight for the next phase of work, which sought to test out the ideas arising from the initial research with families accessing multiple services in the ACT. Community partnerships were
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