Rural Remote Health
-
Rural Remote Health · Oct 2010
Problems measuring community health status at a local level: Papua New Guinea's health information system.
The Papua New Guinea Department of Health monitors the performance of the health system using a computerised national health information system. This article draws on the recent evaluation of a national-wide donor-project community development initiative to highlight the problems of the lack of and disaggregated village health data. This data could be used to monitor health status, health worker performance and intervention impact. ⋯ This article highlights problems in evaluating community interventions or local service performance if reliable village-level data is absent. The health information system does not allow reporting of villages separately or the tracking of changes in health status over time according to identifiable villages. Assessing changes in physical health status is not possible without village-level baseline data to measure illness trends and improvements in health in identifiable villages. There is a need for policy changes to occur at national level to prevent loss of aid-post data from the system. Future planning for community health intervention strategies need to include disaggregated village-level baseline data against which to measure changes in community health status over time.
-
Rural Remote Health · Jul 2010
The Station Community Mental Health Centre Inc: nurturing and empowering.
Consumer-driven community mental health services play an important role in rehabilitation, recovery, and advocacy in rural and remote Australia. The origins of services often lie in the need to provide options for people with mental illness and their carers when there is a lack of on-the-ground support. This article adds to the information about the strengths and limitations of consumer-driven mental health services by presenting the findings of an evaluation of The Station Inc. in rural South Australia. This consumer-driven mental health service provides a safe and supportive environment, social connections, and activities for its members (those with a lived experience of mental illness). Using a realist evaluation approach, the evaluation identified the contextual factors and the program mechanisms that produce positive outcomes for members. ⋯ Information about the benefits and limitations of consumer-driven mental health services in rural and remote Australia is in short supply. Increasing the available information about the contribution these services make may result in services being legitimised, understood, and resourced within mental health systems thus making the services sustainable. The benefits of consumer-driven services are that they provide flexibility and adaptation, an ability to capture the energy and passion of rural communities to improve the wellbeing of community members, and they overcome the power differential that exists between professionals and 'patients' or 'clients'.
-
Rural Remote Health · Jul 2010
Rural mental health workforce difficulties: a management perspective.
The recruitment, retention and training of mental health workers is of major concern in rural Australia, and the Gippsland region of Victoria is no exception. Previous studies have identified a number of common factors in these workforce difficulties, including rurality, difficulties of access to professional development and training, and professional and personal isolation. However, those previous studies have often focused on medicine and been based on the perspectives of practitioners, and have almost ignored the perspectives of managers of rural mental health services. The study reported in this article sought to contribute to the development of a more sustainable and effective regional mental health workforce by complementing earlier insights with those of leading administrators, managers and senior clinicians in the field. ⋯ The approach taken by the study, particularly its focus on a management perspective, revealed that the difficulties experienced are the product of a core tension between a growing demand for mental health care, emerging specialities and technological advances in the field, and a diminished systemic capacity to support organisations in meeting the demand. Resolving this core tension is a key to the maintenance of a sustainable and effective workforce in Gippsland, and the role of management is crucial to that resolution.