The Illawarra Coordinated Care Trial was one of nine Australian trials undertaken to see whether different modelsof coordinated care could improve the health of people with multiple service needs within existing resources. This papersummarises the findings of an extensive local evaluation and discusses the impact of the trial on clients and serviceproviders. It examines the main findings related to the principal trial hypothesis and points to lessons that mightinform the next round of trials.
The terminal phase is perceived as a time where the majority will experience distressing symptoms, but this work suggests a contrary view. However, there did seem to be a detrimental effect depending on place of care with more significant problems recorded when people were dying at home. More work is needed to clarify this given the current push for more home deaths.
The National Home and Community Care (HACC) Dependency Data Items Project was established to recommend, for national use, validated and reliable instruments for measuring the dependency of people eligible for HACC services. In Stage 2 of the project - reported here - a screening tool and assessment instruments selected in Stage 1 of the project were field-tested in a range of HACC agencies. The performance of the screen and the associated assessments was evaluated, as was their acceptability to HACC staff and clients. The results suggest that all of the five instruments are suitable for the target population of HACC services and they can be used effectively across a broad range of service types and by providers of diverse professional backgrounds.
A well-conceived evaluation framework increases understanding of a program's goals and objectives, facilitates the identification of outcomes and can be used as a planning tool during program development. Herein we describe the origins and development of an evaluation framework that recognises that implementation is influenced by the setting in which it takes place, the individuals involved and the processes by which implementation is accomplished. The framework includes an evaluation hierarchy that focuses on outcomes for consumers, providers and the care delivery system, and is structured according to six domains: program delivery, impact, sustainability, capacity building, generalisability and dissemination. These components of the evaluation framework fit into a matrix structure, and cells within the matrix are supported by relevant evaluation tools. The development of the framework has been influenced by feedback from various stakeholders, existing knowledge of the evaluators and the literature on health promotion and implementation science. Over the years, the framework has matured and is generic enough to be useful in a wide variety of circumstances, yet specific enough to focus data collection, data analysis and the presentation of findings.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.