By going into communities, BCHS staff members have been able to provide a range of supports for those experiencing social and health challenges.
With the support of Sunbury Cobaw Community Health, Maryborough District Health and Echuca Regional Health, we have supported people within ‘high-risk’ residential settings across the Loddon region.
This has included:
· Support to more than 1000 public housing properties and a range of community housing, rooming houses, supported residential services and caravan parks.
· Coordinated home-based services, including the provision of food and essential goods, prescriptions, supports for pets, temporary accommodation, and connection to services for mental health and wellbeing issues.
· Delivered messages to community through different mediums: hosting coffee vans handing out current localised and tailored health information; setting up a hotline for community who find it difficult to understand health education material or need assistance booking clinic appointments; or developing audio / visual resources in different languages.
· Provided 7-day-a-week coverage to support people in their homes with covid, ensuring truly isolated community members realised someone cared about them.
Bendigo Community Health Services Chief Executive Officer, Gerard José, says despite the challenges of the pandemic, community health services have seen many positives as a result of the HRAR program.
“While we have seen an increase in vaccinaions by taking services directly to people within their own communities, we have also seen a gradual build in trust as our teams have become familiar faces in the neighbourhood either going door-to-door or holding events at neighbourhood venues,” he said.
During the past two years, BCHS staff have asked community what they want, what works for them, and changed our approaches and ways of communicating to accommodate those needs.
“We have heard that many people, for many reasons, do not travel far from their home and find it a barrier to travel to large community hubs, so services and programs need to go to them,” Mr José said.
“By proactively going into communities, services are broadening their engagement processes and developing a no wrong door entry into programs.
“There is a high reliance of digital and social media by government departments to impart important messages. The communities supported by HRAR struggle with these forms of communication. These community members appreciate someone who will take time to explain things to them and not rush them through or redirect them to websites, Facebook, etc. They appreciate friendly, genuine supports that steer them through often complex processes and health pathways.
“We are still seeing people turn up at neighbourhood clinics for their first and second vaccinations.”
Mr José says outreach needs to be continual and sustained.
“Many community members are living very isolated lives with few social supports. By taking services into their space we are building opportunities to further social engagement and connections,” he said.
“The positive outcomes and experiences we have observed extend beyond a response to COVID and tell us much more about how we truly engage people in services and in building up an understanding of their care needs.
“It is easy to see the benefits that can be gained by shifting focus to the flu season, other essential health needs, or even emergency safety messaging.”
Our impact:
· Many people have reported they ‘never go into town’ and because they had seen us consistently in their area, they ‘finally came over’ to be vaccinated.
· One woman attended for vaccinations for herself and her children while her partner wasn’t home, as he didn’t believe in the vaccination but she knew not having the children vaccinated would prevent the kids getting day care. She was too scared to tell him.
· A single man living in a rooming house with no family was so scared he thought he was going to die. He didn’t have anyone to talk to at the time, so he looked forward to the twice daily phone calls.
· Providing supports to homeless families housed in motels while COVID positive showed how precarious their existence was and how they were living from day to day
