Page 1411 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 6 May 2015
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Education and Training Directorate has a commitment to the inclusion of all students in public education. HAAS is a sustainable model that delivers a more equitable match of resources to an individually assessed level of student need. In 2012 a pilot project was undertaken by ACT Health in collaboration with the ACT Education and Training Directorate to research national and international models of care that support the complex and/or invasive healthcare needs of students to enable them to attend school. This was in response to an increasing number of students with additional healthcare needs who attend mainstream ACT public schools as well as increasing and reasonable demands from parents for equitable access to an inclusive education for their children. The HAAS program was therefore developed in accordance with the Education and Training Directorate’s students with a disability, meeting their educational needs policy and the disability standards for education 2005.
Following consultation with schools, parents, unions and the community in November 2012, the pilot HAAS program commenced in February 2013. The HAAS pilot is focused on the individual needs of students to access and participate in school, which they otherwise may not be able to do. HAAS, as I have said before, is a contemporary program. It is based on successful interstate and international models of school-based health care. South Australia has a similar model of care which has been in use since 1992, and Queensland has also commenced a similar model of care. As of 5 May this year 25 students on the HAAS pilot program are enrolled in nine ACT public schools. All HAAS eligible students attending Black Mountain School have been transitioned to the previous model of care.
The HAAS registered nurses provide ongoing support to school staff and families. However, they do not provide a telephone advice service or a hotline, as has been suggested by others. In the HAAS model of care, individual student needs are identified and assessed by a senior HAAS registered nurse, along with family and medical input. Following this, individual care plans are developed for each eligible student, and if the senior nurse and medical advice is that a learning support assistant, LSA, can undertake the level of care, the LSA can be trained by the nurse in the specific healthcare tasks required to support that student. These are often the same tasks that would be undertaken by family members or carers if the child was not at school.
The HAAS clinical nurse consultant, registered nurse and the HAAS consultant paediatrician use a validated risk assessment tool to assign the level of care required to meet the student’s identified healthcare needs. This level of care could require a school staff member to be assigned on a one-to-one basis to a particular student or a school staff member to assist a student periodically during the day. In some circumstances a registered or enrolled nurse may be required to provide specific aspects of a student’s care needs. The care plans for individual students also include details of how school staff should respond if they are concerned about the health of students. In some circumstances this will involve calling a nurse to provide further assistance. However, as in any emergency situation, it will sometimes be more appropriate to call an ambulance.
In the event that the care level recommendation made by the intake team is not consistent with the expectation of the student’s family, it is elevated to the HAAS
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