As we approach the holiday season and the New Year, it is always nice to reflect on how much we have achieved together this past year.
Our commissioning team has had its biggest year to date, as we almost doubled the number of contracts we manage for the second year in a row. These 470 contracts range from chronic health to urgent care, aged care to aboriginal health, mental health to alcohol and other drug support, and much more. Our programs have evolved to integrate co-design and multi-agency collaboration across all of our work, and our community are receiving better wraparound care as a result.
This year we launched the first Adult Mental Health Centre in Western Sydney. Set in the heart of Parramatta, this centre offers free mental health care and navigation support 365 days a year. We also expanded our Commonwealth Psychosocial Support program, rolled out the Initial Assessment and Referral Decision Support Tool, and worked with 111 psychologists under our Primary Mental Health Care program. It has been wonderful to see this shift in the sector towards affordable, accessible mental health care. Across all of our commissioned mental health programs, the feedback has been incredible with 94.4% of responding clients rating their experience with the mental health service they had accessed as ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’.
To help respond to the needs of our diverse population, we also expanded our funding to the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS) and commissioned our first provider to tackle homelessness in Western Sydney, Street Side Medics.
In August and September, we ran our first-ever Community Panels to test a new way to uncover matters to our diverse and vibrant population. We recognise that solutions are more sustainable when they are made by the people they affect the most, and it was fantastic to hear such a range of viewpoints come together for the public good. Moving forward, these Panels will become a permanent approach in Western Sydney to listen to the well-informed voices of the people.
We continued to drive forward a Healthy Ageing agenda with our partners and community. Our team supported 64 residential aged care facilities (RACFs), developed and began running a ‘Residential Aged Care Facility Leadership and Business Resilience’ program and developed a set of Palliative Care Handbooks for seeking care both in community and in RACFs. We also commissioned four Care Finder providers to connect older people living in the community to the best support services. Almost 300 people have received help so far.
Our Urgent Care initiatives also expanded and we now have six general practices across the region with the resources and skills to offer timely, community-based care for non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries. Combining with our Urgent Care Line (1300-371 372), our mobile diagnostic service and clinician support line, our vision with Western Sydney Local Health District (WSLHD) for a Value Based Urgent Care system has been realised.
Further practice enhancement opportunities came in the form of 325 Strengthening Medicare Grants to improve and maintain digital health capabilities, infection prevention and control activities, and accreditation. We also saw the introduction of the new MyMedicare voluntary patient registration model to deliver new funding packages to primary care providers.
This is just a snippet of what we have achieved in the past year. None of this work would be possible without the tireless efforts of our partners, health professionals, providers and community members. Your continued support not only improves health outcomes in our region but inspires health reform at a national level.
If this year is anything to go by, then I am sure 2024 will be an even greater success as we continue to reach for the stars with you in the pursuit of a strong, integrated community sector and a more equitable approach to funding, delivery and access. I would like to wish you all the best for the year ahead and a restful holiday period.
Happy New Year!
Best wishes,
Ray Messom, WentWest CEO
14 December 2023