Members gather to celebrate work with vulnerable communities.
 

More than 150 District staff members have attended the inaugural Directorate of Clinical Services Integration & Population Health Showcase at Sydney Education.

The Showcase provided a great opportunity for members to celebrate the Directorate’s work with vulnerable communities, connect and collaborate.

Directorate members made more than 50 presentations on a range of topics under the broad categories of “Workforce, capacity building, training”, “Models of care and Innovation”, “Equity and Access to care and programs” and “Consumer, Co-design and overcoming stigma”.

One highlight of the Showcase was the launch of the District’s new Equity Portal by Associate Professor Fiona Haigh, Director, Health Equity Research and Development Unit, and Wendy Jopson, Aboriginal Research Lead on the project.

The portal provides District staff with resources and tools to enable them to better integrate health equity into their day-to-day work.

Associate Professor Haigh said the project to build the portal had taken about two years and would continue.

“It's been it's been quite a big project because we've been doing a lot of engagement along the way, talking with talking with staff around what their needs are,” she said.

“We also have a whole Aboriginal stream of research around it. So, we have Aboriginal governance over the project and have been working really closely with the Aboriginal Health Workers Forum to get guidance around what equity means for them.

“And it's going to be an ongoing project. You can think of it as a living portal. We'll continue to develop tools and resources over the next year.”

Associate Professor Haigh said some of the continuing work on the portal would be to collect good examples of health equity in action from across the District to include on the site so people can see and learn from others.

She said the portal project had also updated the equity framework for the district to identify seven areas where action could be taken to address inequalities.

Amanda Yates, Director of Nursing and Midwifery for the Directorate, said the inaugural Showcase had been full of laughter and learning, and wonderful presentations.

“People really loved coming together and hearing about the incredible work the Directorate does,” she said.

Chief Executive Deb Willcox AM said the Directorate’s members would share innovations, insights, and strategies to shape the future of integrated care and population health across Sydney Local Health District.