industry & reform
industry & reform
You discussed some of the early results of research into the use of the tool. What was revealed about how case managers’ and clients’ views aligned? AS: Overall, there was general consistency in how case managers and clients responded to the quality-of-life measures that we included, which was pleasing.
What was also pleasing is that case managers and clients both agreed clients overall had relatively high quality of life, which suggests the support they’ re receiving is effective.
You mentioned the results were quite positive in terms of how valid or reliable the tool is. What was revealed about that and the ease of use among staff and consumers? AS: We might start with the issue of usability. Overall, the results exceeded our expectations. We thought we’ d be doing a pretty good job if we had a tool that could be completed within 10 – 15 minutes. Looking at the results of two rounds of data from both clients and consumers, we’ re seeing that over 90 per cent of our respondents were able to complete it within 10 minutes. Even more pleasingly, about three-quarters of case managers were able to do it within five minutes.
With both clients and case managers, what we tended to see was that in round two, it took them less time to fill out the tool than in round one. On top of that, clients and case managers also reported that the tool was easy to use. That was great.
How might the tool be used in the future? MF: It’ s useful for both service delivery and for research; and indirectly it can inform policy and help underpin an approach to both value and quality. It helps the individual consumer and individual staff members or case managers work out what’ s working and what’ s not, what the gaps are in service provision and so forth. It’ s good at that individual consumer level and promotes a real discussion
between the case manager and the recipient at the moment. As we move beyond care-package recipients to other community-care receivers, it can be useful in the home support program also.
[ The tool is ] valuable when you aggregate the data, and this is probably its main use. When you aggregate the data and look at how well a service is running, you can benchmark it against the way all other services of a similar kind are going across Australia, or across a state. If you’ re doing well, you can perhaps use those results in some form of marketing, or you might like to use that for staff rewards or staff support programs. If there are problems, you use the data as a diagnostic tool to identify the areas to improve and ways to enhance your service provision.
We’ ve got a measure that’ s easy to use, captures consumer views as well as staff views, and does it in a way that is not too interventionist. It’ s not going to disrupt service delivery; it’ s not too intrusive for consumers or staff members. ■
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