AHA was engaged by the Department of Health and Ageing to undertake the Stage One Access Point-Tasmania Mapping project. Following our successful conduct of the Tasmania project, our team was also engaged to undertake the same project in Queensland.

These projects involved the identification and mapping of the current pathways and points that eligible clients use to enter the community care system.The aim of this project supports a range of national reforms currently underway in community care, as outlined in A New Strategy for Community Care – The Way Forward.They were pivotal to governments achieving the Council of Australian Governments (CoAG) requirement to simplify access to care services for the elderly, people with disabilities and people leaving hospital.

The projects included wide consultation with the community care sector. This included:

• Focus groups with service providers and peak bodies
• Interviews with selected key personnel
• Targeted meetings with key stakeholders and service providers, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stakeholders (Queensland and Tasmania)
• Consultation with HACC Aboriginal liaison officers
• Meeting and consultation with the HACC Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Reference Group (Queensland).
• The dissemination of a consultation paper to all community care providers.

Upon completion of the consultations, for each State, our team:

• Mapped the current and proposed infrastructure and entry processes used by clients within the community care sector
• Assessed the functional and non-functional components for Access Point demonstration site/s
• Developed a number of Options for Access Point demonstration sites
• Analysed the costs and develop an implementation plan for demonstration site/s.